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CORRESPONDENCE. 



secretary's office 
Washington Co., Agricultural & Mechanical Ass'n. 

Marietta, 0., Feb. igt/i, 1876. 
I. W. Andrews, D. D., 

Dear Sir: — The Board of Directors of the Washington County 
Agricultural and Mechanical Association, at a meeting held Feb. 
16th, 1876, in conformity with the recommendations of the Centennial 
authorities at Philadelphia, and the Annual Agricultural Convention 
of this State, and to carry such recommendations into effect, selected 
you to prepare and deliver an historical address the coming Fourth of 
July. It would afford me pleasure to receive your acceptance. 

Yours most respectfully, 

C. T. FRAZYER, 

Secretary. 



Marietta College, Feb. 22, 1876. 

Dear Sir: — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of the 19th instant, conveying to me an invitation from the 
" Washington County Agricultural and Mechanical Association," to 
prepare and deliver, on the Fourth of July next, an historical address 
pertaining to the development of the county within the century. 

Will you convey to the Board of Directors my appreciation of the 
honor conferred on me in selecting me for this service, and my grate- 
ful acceptance of the same? 

Yours truly, 

ISRAEL W. ANDREWS. 

Hon. C. T. Frazyer, Secretary, cV-v. 









Correspondence. 



At a subsequent meeting of citizens, the following officers were 
appointed for the celebration of the Centennial Fourth of July : 

Hon. P. B. BUELL, President. 

Vice Presidents.— Adams, S. N. Merriam; Aurelius, J. D. James; 
Barlow, D. N. Dunsmore; Belpre, L. E. Stone; Decatur, A. Russell; 
Dunham, S. D. Ellenwood; Fairfield, C. H. Goddard; Fearing, Chas. 
Zimmer; Grandview, Jasper Lisk; Harmar, Col. D. Barber; Inde- 
pendence, August Hille; Lawrence, A. J. Dye; Liberty, John Con- 
gleton; Ludlow, Isaac Scott; Marietta — ist Ward, Wm, Glines; 2d, 
Jewett Palmer; 3d, I. R. Waters; Marietta Tp., W. F. Curtis; Musk- 
ingum, L. J. P. Putnam; Newport, J. B. Greene; Palmer, J. M. 
Murdock; Salem, Walter Thomas; Union, Matthew Jurden; Warren, 
C. B. Tuttle; Waterford, H. F. Devol; Watertown, Isaac Johnson; 
Wesley, B. F. Arnold. 

Col. T. W. MOORE, Marshal. 

Reading of the Declaration of Independence, Capt. W. H. Gurley. 

On the 25th of May, President Grant issued a Proclamation 
bringing to the notice of the people, a joint resolution of Congress, 
recommending their assembling in their several counties and towns on 
the Centennial Anniversary, and " that they cause to have delivered on 
such day, an historical sketch of said county or town, and that a copy 
of said sketch may be filed, in print or manuscript, in the Clerk's 
office of the said county, and an additional copy be filed in the office 
of the Librarian of Congress, to the intent that a complete record 
may thus be obtained of the progress of our institutions during the 
first Centennial of their existence." 

In accordance with this recommendation and the arrangements 
previously made, the citizens of Washington County, assembled at 
Marietta, and duly celebrated the Centennial Anniversary of our 
National Independence. 

Hon. P. B. Buell presided, and Col. T. W. Moore officiated as 
marshal. Prayer was offered by Rev. S. C. Frampton, and the Decla- 
ration of Independence was read by William H. Gurley, Esq. The 
historical address was then delivered by the orator of the day. 



Historical Address. 



FELLOW Citizens of Washington County: 
On this day, one hundred years ago, the Thirteen 
United Colonies became The United States of 
America. The people of the colonies, through their 
representatives in General Congress assembled, publicly 
declared themselves absolved from all allegiance to the 
British Crown, and solemnly and religiously proclaimed 
to the world their determination to assume and maintain 
a separate and equal station among the nations of the 
earth. It was a bold declaration to be made by those 
small and feeble colonies, against a great and powerful 
nation. But they believed in the justness of their cause 
and could appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world 
for the rectitude of their intentions. They placed a 
firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence; 
and the more we study our national history from that 
eventful day to this, the clearer are the proofs that 
that protection has not been withheld. 

There is not need to recount the steps by which 
our fathers were led to dissolve the bonds that bound 
the colonies to the mother country. The first meeting 
to consider their grievances, was in 1765, when dele- 
gates from nine colonies met in New York. The pas- 



6 Centennial Historical Address. 

sage of the Stamp Act by Parliament, in March of that 
year, was the immediate occasion of this Congress. 
They adopted a declaration of rights and claimed the 
treatment due to British subjects: "that it is insepar- 
ably essential to the freedom of a people, and the un- 
doubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed 
on them but with their own consent, given personally or 
by their representatives." This sentiment passed into a 
maxim, "taxation without representation is tyranny." 
If Parliament should enact laws to tax the people of the 
colonies, the representatives of the colonies ought to be 
admitted as members of Parliament. The maxim did 
not mean that taxation without suffrage is tyranny, for 
the ordinance for this north-west territory provided that 
no one could vote without "a freehold in fifty acres of 
land in the district." 

The Stamp Act was repealed, but other taxes and 
duties were imposed quite as obnoxious to the colonies. 
In September, 1774, the first Continental Congress met 
at Philadelphia, embracing delegates from twelve colo- 
nies. There were men in that Congress whose names 
have become household words. Addresses to the king, 
to the people of Great Britain, to the people of the col- 
onies, and to the inhabitants of the Province of Quebec, 
were drawn up, and the Congress hoped that their 
grievances would be redressed. But should the course 
of the king continue as before, they recommended a sec- 
ond Congress in the month of May following. The king- 
remained obstinate, and the second Continental Congress 
was convened as had been recommended. But hostili- 
ties had already commenced at Lexington and Concord, 
and measures for defense were immediately taken. An 
army was organized, and on the 15th of June George 



The Declaration of Independence. 



Washington was unanimously elected general of all the 
forces. His commission styled him the "General and 
Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the United 
Colonies." 

The breach became wider and wider. The people 
began to talk of separation. On-Lhe 7th of June, 1776, 
Richard Henry Lee, in accordance with the vote of the 
Virginia Convention, moved in Congress a declaration 
of independence. Alter a most thorough discussion in 
the committee of the whole it was adopted on the 
tenth. The further consideration was postponed till July. 
On the second of that month it was adopted in Congress; 
•n the fourth the declaration, which had been pre- 
pared by a committee previously appointed, was adopt- 
ed. While the resolution was passed on the second, the 
formal declaration was adopted on the fourth, and thus 
that became our national birth-day. Each of the 
colonies was transformed into a State, and the thirteen 
united colonies became an independent nation. Whether 
the independence thus declared could be maintained 
was to be decided by the sword. Should the people 
fail in the great struggle, they would have no place as 
a nation on the page of history. Should they succeed, 
their national existence would date from the fourth of 
July, 1776. 

We celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of 
that day. The American Republic has completed her 
first century. It has been a century of growth. From 
about three millions of people we have become more 
than forty millions. From a little strip along the At- 
lantic coast our possessions have increased till they ex- 
tend from ocean to ocean, and from the forty-ninth par- 
allel of latitude to the gulf. Including Alaska, the ter- 



Centennial Historical Address. 



ritoi \g to the United States is nearly ten 

times as large as that occupied by the thirteen colonies. 
The number of States has increased to thirty-seven, 
with Colorado to be admitted, probably during the pres- 
ent month; indeed considered ahead} 7 as a State by the 
great conventions of Cincinnati and St. Louis. 1 

The two great events of the century have been the 
formation and adoption of the Constitution of the United 
States, and the recent civil war. This great struggle, 
while it was a sectional war growing out of slavery as 
its immediate cause, was in reality a conflict ot ideas — 
the old articles of confederation pitted against the con- 
stitution of 1787. Appeal was made to the arbitraiTJrnt 
of the sword, and the doctrine of the government 
has been settled, as so many other great political ques- 
tions have been, by blood. The institution of slavery is 
gone; those who were defeated in the great struggle 
accept the situation, and we may hope that all parts of 
the nation will be bound together by a closer tie, and 
that no root of bitterness will ever again spring up to 
trouble us. 

The invitation with which I have been honored, to 
address my fellow citizens of Washington County on 
this Centennial Independence day, does not allow me 
to speak at length of national questions, or national pro- 
gress; but confines me for the most part to what per- 
tains to the origin and development of our own county. 

It is an honor to be the orator on this day, for this, 
the oldest county in the great North-west, bearing the 
name of the one man whom all Americans hold in rev- 
erence; whose history, more than that of any other, is 
interwoven with the history of the State. 

1. The proclamation of the President admitting Colorado was issued on the first of 
August, 1876. 



Title of the United fitates to Ohio. 



This region was originally a part of the vast dis- 
trict claimed by the French, and known as Louisiana. 
The Mississippi river was discovered by French mission- 
aries, and was subsequently explored to its mouth by 
LaSalle, who, according to the custom of the nations 
of that day, took, possession ir: the name of his sover- 
eign, Louis XIV, of the \ a c region drained by its waters. 
After the French war, France, by the treaty of peace 
of i ; at Britain all her possessions east 

.iver. When the war of the Ameri- 
can Rev broke out, the whole of the eastern part 
o*" th t Mississippi valley was claimed by Great 
Britain, and by the treaty of 1783 between that power 
and the United States this region was relinquished to 
our nation. It is true that various States of the Union 
laid claim during the Revolutionary war to large tracts 
west of the Alleghenies on the ground of old English 
charters, but their claims were conflicting and it was 
the policy of Congress not to decide between them. 
Eventually all these States made cessions of their 
claims, some with and others without reservations; but 
the probabilities are that the nation as a whole, which 
had really wrested the lands from Great Britain, was by 
the laws of nations the rightful owner of the region. 
These lands thus came from the French to the English 
by the treaty of 1763, and from the English to the 
United States by the treaty of 1783. And it is a plea- 
sant coincidence that when General Rufus Putnam, in 
1757, then only nineteen years old, and others of the 
noble pioneers of Ohio, shouldered their muskets and 
made those wearisome marches to Canada and endured 
such great privations in the old French war, the} r were 
really fighting for the region which was to be their future 



tetiivlcil Historical Address. 



home, and :- j were to lay the foundations of 

many ricl tncj J States. 

The seu r at Marietta in 1788 grew out of an 

appropriation Oi lands made b\ Congress in 1776 to the 
officers and soldiers d£ the army. Those who should 
serve during the war > tracts according 

to their rank; a Colonel 500 &r lieutenant Colonel 

450, and so on, a private soldier r oo. in 1780 the act 
was extended to General office.! « : a Major-General to 
receive 1,100, a Brigadier-General 850. Jn June 1783, 
the officers of the army to the number oi 
Congress that the lands to which they were entitle 
might be located in "that tract of country bou. ' d north 
on Lake Erie, east on Pennsylvania, south-Cc 
south on the river Ohio, west on a line beginnin t 
that part of the Ohio which lies twenty-four miles wes. 
of the mouth of the river Scioto, thence running north 
on a meridian line till it intersects the river Miami, 
which falls into Lake Erie, thence down the middle of 
that river to the Lake." They speak of this tract as " of 
sufficient extent, the land of such quality and situation, 
as may induce Congress to assign and mark it out as a 
tract or territory suitable to form a distinct government 
(or Colony of the United States), in time to be admitted 
one of the Confederated States of America;" and also 
as " a tract of country not claimed as the property of, 
or within the jurisdiction of, any particular State of the 
Union." 

General Rums Putnam forwarded this petition to 
General Washington, accompanying it with a long and 
able letter, in which he detailed the advantages which 
the establishment of such a colony would secure to 
the whole country. He says; " The part which I have 



General Putnam's Letter to Washington. 11 

taken in promoting the petition is well known, and 
therefore needs no apology when I inform you that the 
signers expect that I will pursue measures to have it 
laid before Congress; under these circumstances I beg 
leave to put the petition into your Excellency's hands, 
and ask with the greatest assurance your patronage of 
it." He suggests a chain of forts, say twenty miles 
apart, extending from the Ohio to the Lake by the 
Scioto or Muskingum. His letter concludes thus: "The 
petitioners conceive that sound.pdlicy dictates the mea- 
sure, and that Congress ought to lose no time in estab- 
lishing some such chains of forts as has been hinted at, 
and in procuring the tract of country petitioned for, of 
the natives; for the moment this is done, and agreeable 
terms offered to the settlers, many of the petitioners 
are determined, not only to become adventurers, but 
actually to remove themselves to this country; and 
there is not the least doubt but other valuable citizens 
will follow their example, and the probability is that 
the country between Lake Erie and the Ohio will be 
filled with inhabitants, and the faithful subjects of these 
United States so established on the waters of the Ohio 
and the lakes, as to banish forever the idea of our 
Western territory falling under the dominion of any 
European power, the frontiers of the old states will be 
effectually secured from savage alarms, and the new 
will have little to fear from their insults." 

In this letter General Putnam speaks of townships 
six miles square, with reservations for the ministry and 
schools — probably the first suggestion of the kind. 
General Washington immediately transmits this petition, 
with a copy of General Putnam's letter, to the President 
of Congress, accompanying it with an earnest letter. 



12 Centennial Historical Address. 

In April, 1784, General Putnam writes again to Wash- 
ington, who in his reply expresses great regret at the 
inaction of Congress. He says, " for surely if justice 
and gratitude to the army, and general policy of the 
Union were to govern in this case, there would not be 
the smallest interruption in granting its request." l 

In January, 1786, Generals Rufus Putnam and Ben- 
jamin Tupper issued a call for a meeting of officers and 
soldiers and others to form an Ohio Company. The 
meeting was held in Boston, March 1st, delegates be- 
ing present from eight counties. General Putnam was the 
president of the meeting and Major Winthrop Sargent, 
clerk. A committee was appointed to prepare articles 
of association, and the Ohio Company of Associates 
was duly organized. The object was to raise a fund in 
continental certificates, for the sole purpose of buying 
western lands in the Western Territory and making a 
settlement. 

The fund was not to exceed a million dollars in 
continental specie certificates, exclusive of one year's 
interest, each share to consist of one thousand dollars 
in certificates and one year's interest; and ten dollars in 
gold or silver. This interest and the gold and silver 
were to be used for incidental charges, expenses of 
agents, &c. No person was to hold more than five 
shares. An agent represented twenty shares. 

The officers were to be five directors, a treasurer, 
and a secretary, to be appointed by the agents. The 
directors were to have sole control of the Company's 
fund, and the lands purchased were to be divided by lot 
as the agents should direct. 

1. This autograph letter of General Washington, dated 2d June, 1784, is among the 
Putnam papers in the library of Marietta College, presented by Hon. William R. Putnam, 
grandson of General Rufus Putnam. 



The Ohio Company's Purchase. 13 

Three directors were' appointed in March, 1787: 
General Samuel H. Parsons, General Rufus Putnam 
and Reverend 4 Doctor Manasseh Cutler. Major Win- 
throp Sargent, was made secretary. At a meeting in 
August, General James M. Varnum, of Rhode Island, 
was elected a director, and Richard Piatt, of New 
York, treasurer. Doctor Cutler was employed to pur- 
chase of Congress land for the Company in the " Great 
Western Territory of the Union," and in July, 1787, 
went for that purpose to New York, where the Conti- 
nental Congress was then in session. 

The year 1787 was an eventful year. The present 
Constitution of the United States was framed, the ordi- 
nance for the government of the Territory North-west 
of the River Ohio was enacted, and the purchase of 
land was made by the Ohio Company. The North 
American Review for April of this year says: :< " The 
ordinance of 1787, and the Ohio purchase were parts of 
one and the same transaction. The purchase would 
not have been made without the ordinance, and the or- 
dinance could not have been enacted except as an 
essential condition of the purchase." 

The contract was made for 1,500,000 acres, Con- 
gress passing an act to that effect July 27th, acceding to 
the terms proposed by Doctor Cutler; the ordinance for 
the Territory having been passed on the 13th of the 
month. 

This is the place to speak particularly of two men 
in connection with this settlement. Many of the early 
settlers were eminent men. No other settlement of 
modern times can show so many — but two were especi- 
ally prominent, General Rufus Putnam and Doctor 
Manasseh Cutler. 



1J/. Centennial Historical Address. 



General Putnam early conceived the idea of an or- 
ganized emigration to the West. He wrote to Wash- 
ington in 1783, and again in 1784; heTiad previously, 
in 1773, explored West Florida with reference to grants 
from the British Government for those who had served 
in the French War. He presided at the meeting called 
to form the Ohio Company, and was chairman of the 
committee to draft the articles of association. He was 
one of the three directors first appointed, and after the 
purchase he was appointed Superintendent of all the 
business of the company relating to the settlement of 
the lands. He was at once appointed a Judge of the 
Court of Common Pleas, very soon was made one of the 
three Judges of the Territory, and later became the Sur- 
veyor-General of the United States. Before coming to 
Ohio he had risen from the position of a common sol- 
dier to the rank of Brigadier-General. He had the con- 
fidence of Washington. In every position in which he 
was placed he succeeded. By the force of his charac- 
ter, by his integrity, his energy, he accomplished what- 
ever he undertook. It is impossible to study the history of 
those times and the part he acted without being im- 
pressed with the solidity and excellence of his character, 
intellectual and executive, moral and religious. In a 
community of able men, many of them highly educated, 
General Putnam was from the first the leading man. 

Doctor Cutler was not among the pioneers, though 
his children were; his connection and agency were es- 
pecially in the purchase of the land, and in framing the 
ordinance of 1787. He was a highly cultivated man, a 
graduate of Yale College, and a member of divers philo- 
sophical societies. At that time he was pastor of a church 
in Eastern Massachusetts. He was at the meeting, March 



The Ordinance of 1787. 15 

i st, 1786, was placed on the committee to draft articles, 
all the others being military men, and was made a di- 
rector with General Putnam and General Parsons. He 
was appointed to purchase the land, and while making 
the negotiation the ordinance of 1787 was enacted. 

An ordinance for the North-west Territory had 
been reported in Congress in March, 1784, by a com- 
mittee of which Mr. Jefferson was chairman. It pro- 
hibited slavery after 1800, but this restricting clause 
was stricken out. It was passed April 23d, and remained 
on the statute book till repealed by the ordinance of 
1787. Various efforts had been made to improve it, 
but without success. 

Dr. Cutler reached New York July 5th. On the 
9th a new committee on the ordinance was appointed. 
On the nth the ordinance was reported, and on the 13th 
it was passed, with but one vote against it. No act of 
legislation by any legislative body in the United States has 
been more highly praised than this. Mr. Webster says: 
"We are accustomed to praise the law-givers of an- 
tiquity; we help to perpetuate the fame of Solon and 
Lycurgus; but I doubt whether one single law of any 
law-giver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of 
more distinct, marked, and lasting character than the 
ordinance of 1787." 

Judge Timothy Walker says: r? It approaches as 
near to absolute perfection as anything to be found in 
the legislation of mankind." 

For this immortal ordinance we are largely, per- 
haps chiefly, indebted to Dr Cutler. The evidence of 
his agency in it has been recently re-examined and pre- 
sented by a writer in the North American Review, and 
it seems to be unanswerable. This ordinance was 



16 Centennial Historical Address. 

the first under which any Territory was organized, and 
it has been the model for all those that have since been 
enacted. 

How great the obligations of the great North-west 
and of the whole country are to this quiet Massachusetts 
clergyman, are thus apparent. Far distant be the day 
when the county of Washington, the State of Ohio, and 
the whole North-west shall cease to cherish the names 
and memory of Rufus Putnam and Manasseh Cutler. 1 

The contract for the sale of 1,500,000 acres to the 
Ohio Company was duly signed Oct. 27, 1787, by 
Samuel Osgood and Arthur Lee, of the Board of Trea- 
sury of the United States, and b}^ Manasseh Cutler and 
Winthrop Sargent for the Ohio Company. Payment 
was to be made " in specie, loan office certificates re- 
duced to specie, or certificates of the liquidated debt of 
the United States." The price was one dollar an acre, 
liable to a reduction "by an allowance forbad land, and 
all incidental charges and circumstances whatever; -pro- 
vided that all such allowance shall not exceed, in the 
whole, one-third of a dollar per acre." Rights for 
counties of land to the arm)' might be used in pa}' 
ment, but not for more than one-seventh of the whole 
tract. 

The tract was bounded on the east by the seventh 
range of townships, south by the Ohio, west by the 
west boundary of the seventeenth range, extending so 
far north that an east and west line would embrace the 
number of acres, besides the reservations. These were 
section sixteen for schools ; twenty-nine for the support of 
religion ; eight, eleven and twenty-six to be disposed of 
by Congress; and two townships for a university. 

1. In the " Lives of the Early Settlers of Ohio," by Dr. S. P. Hildreth, 107 pages are 
devoted to General Putnam. A biography of Doctor Cutler is in preparation by Rev. Edwin 
M. Stone, of Providence, Rhode Island, and will soon be published. 



The Ohio Company and Congress in 1792. 17 



The contract authorized the settlers to enter at once 
upon half of the tract extending west to the west line 
of the fifteenth township. 

The Company paid half the purchase money when 
the contract was made; the land to be conveyed when 
the payment should be complete. But the failure of 
some of the shareholders to make their payments, the 
expenses of the Indian war, and losses sustained through 
their treasurer, so embarrassed the Company that it was 
impossible for them to pay the remaining $500,000. 
Early in 1792 the directors met in Philadelphia and 
memorialized Congress for relief. The Committee of 
the House of Representatives, to whom the memorial 
was referred, reported in favor of releasing the Com- 
pany from the remaining payment, and giving a deed 
for the whole tract. The House, however, modified this 
and passed a bill, authorizing a conveyance for that half 
of the tract already paid for (750,000 acres), another 
conveyance for 214,285 acres (one-seventh of the ori- 
ginal purchase) to be paid for within six months by 
warrants issued for bounty rights, and one for 100,000 
acres which was to be conveyed in tracts of 100 acres 
as a bounty to each male person of eighteen years of 
age, being an actual settler. The bill further provided 
that the Company might receive a conveyance for the 
remainder of the 1,500,000 acres on the payment for 
the same within six years at the rate of twenty-five 
cents an acre with interest. This last provision was 
stricken out in the Senate, and the one providing for 
100,000 acres of donation lands was saved by the cast- 
ing vote of the Vice-President. 

The bill was approved April 21st, and on the 10th 
of May the three patents were issued to Rufus Putnam, 



18 Centennial Historical Address. 

Manasseh Cutler, Robert Oliver, and Griffin Greene, in 
trust for the Ohio Company of Associates; they were 
signed by George Washington, President, and Thomas 
Jefferson, Secretary of State. The three patents for 
913,883 acres, (750,000 besides the reservations), for 
214,285, and 100,000, bear date the same day, May 10th, 
1792. With the exception of one to the State of Penn- 
sylvania, March 3d, 1792, these are the first land patents 
issued by our government. 1 

The first party of emigrants left Danvers, Massa- 
chusetts, Dec. 1st, 1787, conducted by Major Haffield 
White. The second left Hartford, Connecticut, Jan. 1st, 
1788, under Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, General Putnam 
overtaking them Jan. 24th. The first party reached the 
Youghiogheny, Jan. 23d, the second Feb. 14th. There 
they built boats, in which they embarked, April 1st, 
reachingthe mouth of the Muskingum, April 7th. Forty- 
eight men landed here on that day, and thus began the 
settlement of the town of Marietta, the county of 
Washington, the State of Ohio. During that year there 
came in all one hundred and thirty-two men. There 
were fifteen families, among them General Tuppers, 
Major Cushing's, Major Goodale's, and Major Coburn's. 
At the close of that year, says General Putnam, there 
was not a single white family within the present State 
of Ohio save what belonged to the Ohio Company, for 
Colonel Harmar and most of his officers were pro- 
prietors. 

In 1762 some Moravian missionaries had gathered 
a few Indians into a settlement on the Tuscarawas, but 
it had been broken up by the massacre of the Indians 

I. These three patents as well as the original contract of October 2, 1787, are in the 
library of Marietta College. 



Marietta in 1788. 19 



in 1782. A fort had been built in 1786 by Major John 
Doughty on the west bank of the Muskingum, and 
named for Colonel Josiah Harmar, the commander of 
the regiment. Fort Laurens had been built by General 
Mcintosh in 1778, but it was abandoned the next year. 
In 1787, Mr. Isaac Williams had settled in Virginia op- 
posite the mouth of the Muskingum, and the place still 
bears his name. 

This was the situation when General Putnam and 
his pioneers landed in 1788. And at the close of the 
year there was no white population in what is now 
Ohio except that which was here at the mouth of the 
Muskingum. Yet this little community had distin- 
guished men among them, and was marked by a high 
degree of intelligence and culture. 

Here was General Arthur St. Clair, the governor 
of the Territory, who was President of Congress when 
he received his appointment. Here was General Sam- 
uel H. Parsons, a distinguished officer of the Revolu- 
tion and an eminent lawyer and statesman; here also 
was General James M. Varnum, an officer of distinc- 
tion, an eloquent lawyer, and a member of the Conti- 
nental Congress. Both these were judges of the new 
Territory. These were all men of liberal education, as 
were Major Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the Terri- 
tory, Paul Fearing, Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., Dudley 
Woodbridge, and various others. 

Governor St. Clair was the only governor of the 
Territory. Winthrop Sargent, the secretary, was ap- 
pointed governor of Mississippi Territory in 1798, and 
William Henry Harrison succeeded him as secretary: 
When Harrison was elected a delegate to Congress in 
1799, Charles W. Byrd became secretary. 



20 Centennial Historical Address. 



John Cleves Symmes was one of the three judges 
of the Territory. He had been a member of Congress, 
and at the time of his appointment was Chief Justice of 
the State of New Jersey. He remained in office till 
Ohio became a State. Judges Parsons and Varnum 
both died in 1789, and George Turner and Rufus Put- 
nam were appointed in their stead. When Judge 
Putnam was appointed Surveyor-General of the United 
States in 1796, he was succeeded by Joseph Gilman; 
and R. J. Meigs, Jr., was appointed in place of Judge 
Turner in 1798. Five of the seven judges were citizens 
of Marietta — Messrs. Parsons, Varnum, Putnam, Gil- 
man and Meigs. 

The first Territorial legislature met in 1799, P au l 
Fearing and Colonel R. J. Meigs being the representa- 
tives from this county. 1 Colonel Robert Oliver, a 
citizen of this county was one of the five members of 
the Council, or upper house of the legislature, appointed 
by the President. He continued to be a member 
of the Council till the State was admitted into the 
Union in 1803, and for most of the time was the presid- 
ing officer of the body. In the second Territorial legis- 
lature this county was represented by Ephraim Cutler 
and William R. Putnam; and the same two gentlemen 
were re-elected in October, 1802, for the third legislature. 
Paul Fearing was the delegate to Congress from the 
Territory from March 1801 to March 1803. In the 
Convention to frame a State constitution which met at 
Chillicothe in November, 1802, Washington county 
was represented by Rufus Putnam, Ephraim Cutler, 
Benjamin Ives Gilman, and John Mclntire. All these 

1. Colonel R, J. Meigs is often confounded with his son of the same name, who after- 
ward became Governor of Ohio, U. S. Senator, and Postmaster-General. 



Washington County Established. 21 

were from Marietta except Mr. Mclntire, who lived at 
Zanesville, then a part of this county. 

Governor St. Clair reached Fort Harmar, July 9th, 
1788, and was formally received at Marietta on the 15th, 
General Putnam making an address of welcome. The 
commissions of the Governor, Judges, and Secretary 
were read, and thus these officers of the new Territory 
were inducted into office. 

One of the first acts of the Governor was to estab- 
lish the county of Washington, which was done by 
proclamation on the 26th of July, 1 with these boundaries: 

'• Beginning on the bank of the Ohio river where 
the western boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses it, and 
running with that line to Lake Erie; thence along the 
southern shore of said lake to the mouth of Cuyahoga 
river; thence up said river to the portage between that 
and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence 
adown the branch to the forks, at the crossing place 
above Fort Laurens; thence with a line to be drawn 
westerly to the portage of that branch of the Big Miami, 
on which the fort stood that was taken by the French 
in 1752, until it meets the road from the lower Shawa- 
nese town to the Sandusky; thence south to the Scioto 
river, down that to its mouth, and thence up the Ohio 
river to the place of beginning." The irregular line 
from Lake Erie to the Scioto was the boundary be- 
tween the United States and the Wyandot and Delaware 
nations, made by the treaty at Fort Mcintosh, Jan. 21, 

1785. 

The county included nearly half of the present State. 

The next county formed was Hamilton, January 2d, 

1. The volume of the Ohio Statutes, printed in 1807, gives July 27th, as the date, and 
the same is found in the volume of Land Laws, printed in 1823, in Chase's Statutes, and in the 
Ohio Statistics for 1876 prepared by the Secretary of State. But an examination of the papers 
in the State Department at Washington shows that the 26th is the correct date. 



Centennial Historical Address. 



1790. Later were established, in what is now* Ohio, 
Adams, July 10th, 1797 ; Jefferson, July 29th, 1797; Ross, 
August 20th, 1798; Trumbull, (all of the Western Re- 
serve) July 10th, 1800; Clermont, December 6th, 1800; 
Fairfield, December 9th, 1800; Belmont, September 
7th, 1801. 

These nine were the counties when Ohio became 
a State in 1803. At the first session of the State legis- 
lature in March, 1803, eight new counties were made, 
viz: Scioto, Warren, Butler, Montgomery, Greene, Col- 
umbiana, Gallia, and Franklin. The dates of others 
near us are, Muskingum, 1804; Athens, 1805 ; Guernsey, 
1810; Monroe, 1813 ; Jackson, 1816; Morgan, Perry and 
Hocking, 1818; Meigs, 1819; Vinton, 1850; Noble, 1851. 

Immediately after the landing on the 7th of April, 
General Putnam, the Superintendent of the Company, 
commenced the survey of the town and the eight-acre 
lots. He also gave his attention to the subject of de- 
fense against the Indians. He says: "Besides the pro- 
priety of always guarding against savages, I had reason 
to be cautious, for from consulting the several treaties 
which had been made with the Indians by our Commis- 
sioners (copies of which I had obtained at the War 
Office as I came on) and other circumstances, I was 
fully persuaded that the Indians would not be peaceable 
very long; hence the propriety of immediately erecting 
a cover for the emigrants who were soon expected. 
Therefore the hands not necessary to attend the surveys, 
were set to work in clearing the ground which I had 
fixed on for erecting the proposed works of defense." 

The stockade thus built was called Campus Mar- 
tius, and was situated about thirty rods from the Mus- 
kingum on the north side of what is now Washington 



Early Fortifications. 23 



Street.' It was one hundred and eighty feet square, 
with a block-house at each angle, and contained dwell- 
ing-houses sufficient for forty or fifty families. In one 
of these block-houses the first court was held Sept. 2d, 
1788, and the same place was used for public worship. 
After the breaking out of the Indian war in Jan. 1791, 
a stockade was built at the Point, another at Belpre, and 
still another at Waterford. That at Belpre was called 
" Farmers'' Castle," and was on the bank of the river 
opposite the centre of Backus's (now known as Blenner- 
hassett's) island. The one at Waterford, known as "Fort 
Frye," was on the east bank of the Muskingum, a short 
distance below the town of Beverly. Some minor 
fortifications were subsequently erected at Belpre. 
These various garrisons, with Campus Martius and 
Fort Harmar, furnished such protection that the settlers 
passed through the four years of the Indian war with 
very little loss of life. There was necessarily much 
hardship and privation, but the pioneers were resolute 
and intelligent, fertile to contrive and energetic to 
execute. 

The next settlement after Marietta was at Belpre, 
early in 1789, and another was made at Waterford the 
same year. This latter was called Plainfield by the 
people at first, but soon changed to Waterford. In Dec. 
1790, Marietta, Belpre and Waterford were organized 
as townships by the Court of Quarter Sessions. At 
the March session of the Court in 1797, the county was 
divided into townships, with the following boundaries: 

" Marietta, from the seventh range to the western 
boundary of the ninth range, and bounded north by the 
donation tract, extending south to include township 
No. 2, in the ninth range. 



^ Centennial Historical Address. 

Adams, all north of Marietta. 

Waterford, all in the county west of Adams and 
Marietta. 

Gallipolis, from the bank of the Ohio on the line 
between the third and fourth townships of the eleventh 
range to the west line of the county, thence southerly 
to the Ohio, and up the Ohio to the place of beginning. 
' Belpre, all south of Waterford and Marietta, and 
north of Gallipolis." 

The part adjoining Pennsylvania was called War- 
ren, and west of that was Middletown, both running to 
the north line of the county. 

In the summer of 1797 Jefferson county was 
formed, taking off these two townships, Warren and 
Middletown. 

In June of that year the people on Duck Creek 
petitioned for a separate township, and Salem was estab- 
lished at the December term of the court. It was 
bounded on the east by the west line of the seventh 
range, and on the south by the south line of the dona- 
tion tract, was five miles wide, and extended to the 
north line of the county. 

In December, 1798, Netvport was established, and 
another Middletown, embracing a large region around 
Athens; also Newtown, formed from the north part of 
Waterford, and described as bounded east by Adams, 
south by Waterford, and north and west by the county 
lines. 

In June, 1800, when the census was taken, there 
were nine townships in the county, three of which, Gal- 
lipolis, Newtown and Middletown, were outside of the 
present county; leaving Marietta, Belpre, Waterford, 
Adams, Salem and Newport. 



Townships in Washington County. 25 



Many changes in the townships have taken place 
since that time, the present number being twenty-three. 
A list is given of the whole number that have been cre- 
ated, with the dates of their establishment. Two of the 
twenty-five — Roxbury and Jolly — have ceased to exist. 

Marietta, Belpre, and Waterford, established in 
1790; Adams and Salem, 1797; Newport, 1798; Grand- 
view, 1802; Watertown 1 and Roxbury, 2 1806; Fearing, 
1808; Wesley and Warren, 1810; Union, 3 1812; Law- 
rence, 1815; Aurelius and Barlow, 1818; Ludlow, 1819; 
Decatur, 1820; Liberty, 1832; Jolly 4 and Independence, 
1840; Fairfield and Palmer, 1851; Dunham, 1856; 
Muskingum, 1861. 

The population in 1870 was 40,609; in i860, 36, 
268; in 1850, 29,540. Seven counties exceed it in pop- 
ulation by the last census, viz: Cuyahoga, Franklin, 
Hamilton, Lucas, Montgomery, Muskingum, and Stark. 

In 1850, eighteen counties were in advance of 
Washington. Of the seven counties now in advance of 
it, all have large cities but two; and of these two, Mus- 
kingum has one city of more than 10,000 inhabitants, 
and Stark has two towns larger than Marietta, and one 
of about the same size. We may say, then, that no ag- 
ricultural county in the State has a larger population 
than Washington. The counties exceeding it in 1850 
and behind it in 1870 are Belmont, Butler, Clermont, 
Columbiana, Fairfield, Guernsey, Licking, Richland, 
Ross, Trumbull, Tuscarawas and Wayne. In the 
twenty years only one county has outstripped it — Lucas, 
which contains the thriving city, Toledo. 

1. Watertown was called Wooster till 1824. 

2. A part of Roxbury was annexed to Morgan county in 1851, and the rest merged in 
the new township of Palmer. 

3. Union has now (1877, been divided between Adams, Muskingum, Warren and 
Watertown. 

4. A part of Jolly was annexed to Monroe county in 1851, and the rest to Grandview 
in 1850. 



26 Centennial Historical Address. 



From 1850 to 1870 fourteen counties in Ohio 
retrograded in population, and twelve of these did the 
same from i860 to 1870. 

Since 1850 the population of Washington has suf- 
fered some reduction by the formation of Noble county, 
and by the annexation of a part of the township of Rox- 
bury to Morgan county, and of parts of Liberty, Lud- 
low and Jolly to Monroe county. 

It should be noted that the tendency of the popu- 
lation in the United States is toward the cities in an 
increasing ratio. Calling those places cities which have 
a population of 8,000, the census shows that in 1790 
the cities had one-thirtieth of the whole population; in 
1820, one-twentieth; in 1850, one-eighth; in 1870, one- 
fifth. This makes the growth of this county more note- 
worthy. 

The movement of the center of population of the 
United States has been westward about fifty miles a 
decade, and along a parallel of latitude nearly coinci- 
dent with the south line of this county. In 1790 the 
center was a little east of Baltimore, in latitude 39 
16'; in 1870 it was fifty miles easterly from Cincinnati, 
in latitude 39 12'. In the eighty years it has not devi- 
ated more than one-sixth of a degree from its general line 
of movement westward. 

The area of Washington county is about 613 square 
miles, which is thirty-five per cent, above the average 
of the counties. The density of population is almost 
exactly that of the State as a whole, being a fraction 
above sixty-six to the square mile. A removal of the 
county-seat to Waterford was suggested in 181 7, but 
the formation of Morgan county the next winter quieted 
whatever agitation there was. 



Formation of the State. 27 

The ordinance of 1787 provided for the formation 
of not less than three nor more than five states from the 
North-west Territory, and the boundaries were given. 
When any division should have 60,000 inhabitants, it 
might form a state constitution. The territory of Ind- 
iana was formed in 1800, and the census of that year 
showed a population of 42,000 in the eastern division. 
After the adjournment of the legislature in January, 1802, 
another census gave 45,028 inhabitants, and an effort 
was made to secure the admission of Ohio into the 
Union. In modern times the people of a territory are 
usually anxious to exchange the territorial for the state 
government at the earliest day, and most of our new 
states have been admitted with a population insufficient 
for a single representative. But the people of Washing- 
ton county were in no such haste. Almost unanimously 
they were opposed to the formation of a state when 
Congress passed the enabling act in April, 1802. 

In June, 1801, a convention of delegates from most 
of the towns of the county was held, at which it was 
unanimously resolved; "That in our opinion, it would 
be highly impolitic, and very injurious to the inhabi- 
tants of this territory, to enter into a state government 
at this time." Among the delegates were Paul Fearing, 
Elijah Backus, Isaac Pierce, Silas Bent, Robert Oliver, 
Gilbert Devol, Joseph Barker and others. 

In December of the same year the territorial legis- 
lature requested Congress to change the western bound- 
ary of the eastern division from the Miami river to the 
Scioto. As such a change would diminish the popula- 
tion as well as the area, its effect would be to postpone 
the time of admission. The people of this county were 
in favor of the alteration, and both their representatives 



28 Centennial Historical Address. 



voted for it. But Congress did not consent to the change 
in boundary, and favored the formation of a state, 
although the population was only about two-thirds of 
the number contemplated by the ordinance. 

The advocates and opponents of the formation of a 
state were strong in the expression of their opinions, 
and prove that party feeling had existence before our 
day. Thomas Worthington, afterwards Governor of 
Ohio, in a letter to Col. R. J. Meigs, speaks of the en- 
deavors "to curb a tyrant," referring to Governor St. 
Clair; and in another he speaks of "the uncommon pains 
taken by Arthur the First to show that our treasury is 
in debt." But he does not regard the change from ter- 
ritory to state as in itself desirable ; " I am by no means 
an advocate for a state government if we can by any 
means have tolerable harmony under the present. There 
are a number of reasons against going into a state gov- 
ernment, it is true, but can any situation be more disa- 
greeable than the past has been and the present is." 
General Joseph Darlinton, a member of the first terri- 
torial legislature from Adams county, writes to Mr. 
Fearing in March, 1802, that he thinks the people of 
his county are unanimous for admission into the Union, 
"and congratulate themselves on the prospect of having 
it soon in their power to shake off the iron fetters of 
aristocracy, and in the downfall of the tory party in this 
territory," and hope for the day when they shall be "free 
from the control of an arbitrary chief." 

On the other hand, Judge Woodbridge writes to 
Mr. Fearing in January and March 1802, alluding to the 
foolish talk about "aristocrats" and " tories," and express- 
ing his opinion that scarcely a citizen of the county 



Formation of the State. 29 



would wish to come into a state government. Mr. 
Benjamin Ives Gilman writes warmly, 'and intimates 
that those who wished to be in favor with the national 
administration were advocates of the chanere. He is 
"disgusted with politics/' and is very severe on the Pres- 
ident for the change in postmaster at Marietta. " It is 
the most pitiful measure that ever was taken, and reflects 
disgrace on all concerned in the removal." Hon. Solo- 
mon Sibley, formerly of Marietta, but then of Detroit, 
writes to Judge Burnet in 1802, "I did expect that Con- 
gress would not readily have interfered in the petty 
political squabbles of the territory." rr We may thank 
our good friends Judges S. and M., and Sir Thomas for 
what is done." The allusion is here to the exclusion by 
Congress of the eastern part of Michigan from the east- 
ern district of the territory, to which it properly belonged. 
But Congress by an act passed April 30th, 1802, 
authorized a convention to form a constitution. The 
delegates were elected October 12th, and the convention 
met November 1st. Business of this character was 
transacted with promptness in those days; for the con- 
stitution was completed and the convention had ad- 
journed before the close of the month. The constitution 
thus formed was not submitted to the people for ratifi- 
cation, which is the more remarkable as the convention 
itself was called by Congress without any request on the 
part of the legislature, and without the opinion of the 
inhabitants being taken. The question on submitting 
the constitution to the people was taken in the conven- 
tion and lost by a vote of 27 to 7. Those who voted 
in favor of submitting the constitution to the people 

1. Judge Sibley married the daughter of Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, and grand-daughter 
of Commodore Abraham Whipple. He was a member of the legislative Council of the Territory. 



30 Centennial Historical Address. 

were Messrs. Cutler, Gilman, Mclntire and Putnam, of 
this county, Bezaleel Wells and Nathan Updegraff of 
Jefferson county, and John Reily of Hamilton. It may 
be stated that Judge Cutler also cast his vote in the neg- 
ative, though solitary and alone, on the question of form- 
ing a constitution at that time. 

The convention adjourned on the 29th of Novem- 
ber and copies of the constitution were forwarded to 
Congress by Edward Tiffin, president of the convention 
whose letter is dated "Chillicothe, N. W. Territory, 
Dec. 4, 1802." On the 7th of January, 1803, the Senate 
appointed a committee to '"'inquire whether any, and if 
any, what legislative measures may be necessary for 
admitting the State of Ohio into the Union, and extend- 
ing to that State the laws of the United States." This 
committee reported on the 19th that the constitution and 
state government was republican and in uniformity with 
the principles of the ordinance of 1787, and that it was 
necessary to establish a District Court within the State 
to carry into complete effect the laws of the United 
States. Such a bill was reported on the 27th of Janu- 
ary, passed the Senate February 7th, passed the House 
of Representatives February 1 2th, and was approved by 
the President, February 19th. 

As the constitution of the United States gives to 
Congress alone the power to admit new states, and as 
the act of February 19th, was the first recognition of 
Ohio by Congress, it seems clear that the proper date of 
the admission of Ohio into the Union is February 19, 
1803. l 

1. Various other dates for the admission of Ohio have been given, as April 30th, June 
30th, and November 29th, 1802; March 1st, and March 3d, 1803. That of November 29th, 1802, 
is the one most frequently met with. It is the date of the adjournment of the convention 
which framed the constitution. If the act of a convention could change a territory into a state 
in the case of Ohio, why not in the case of Indiana or Colorado? 



Marietta incorporated in 1800. 31 

The constitution provided that an election of gov- 
ernor, members of the assembly, sheriffs and coroners 
should take place on the second Tuesday of January, 
and that the legislature should meet on the first Tuesday 
of March. Edward Tiffin, president of the constitu- 
tional convention, was elected the first governor, and 
was inaugurated March 3d, the legislature having com- 
menced its session March 1st. 

As Washington was the first count)' established in 
the North-west Territory, so Marietta was the first town 
incorporated. As a township it was established by the 
Court of Quarter Sessions in 1790; as a town it was in- 
corporated by the territorial legislature December 2d, 
1800. The town of Athens was incorporated Decem- 
ber 6th, of the same year, Cincinnati January 1st, 1802, 
and Chillicothe, January 4th, 1802. 

The act of incorporation of Marietta was amended 
in 1812; in 1825 a charter was obtained, and another in 
1835. The town, as incorporated in 1800, seems to 
have been identical in boundary with the township, ex- 
tending north to the donation tract, and being twelve 
miles east and west. The charter of 1825 erected into 
a town corporate such parts of the old town as were 
contained in "the town plat, recorded in the Recorder's 
office." This act divided the town into three wards: 
the second ward embracing the part west of the Mus- 
kingum, and the first and third lying respectively south 
and north of "Stone Bridge Creek." The act of 1835 
gave the same division into wards, but "Stone Bridge 
Creek" is called "Market Square Run." The same 
stream in the the days of the earl)' settlers bore the 
name of " Tyber Creek." 

By the act of incorporation of 1800 the town offi- 



Centennial Historical Address. 



cers were to be elected in town meeting by ballot, and 
votes on other subjects were to be taken by holding up 
the hand. Besides the chairman of the town meeting, 
the voters were to elect by a majority vote a town clerk, 
a town treasurer, and " three or rive able and discreet 
persons of good moral character, to be styled the town 
council." 

There was no Mayor till 1825. By the act of that 
year each ward could elect three trustees, and these 
nine could elect from their own number a mayor, re- 
corder, and treasurer, who with the other six should 
constitute the town council. The act of 1835 made 
the mayor to be elected by the people; he was to pre- 
side in the town council, but have no vote. The act 
itself was not to take effect unless accepted by a vote 
of- the people. In 1837 Harmar was incorporated as a 
separate town, and Marietta had but two wards from 
that time till 1854. In October, 1853, Marietta became 
a city of the second class, in accordance with the gene- 
ral law of May 3d, 1852. In the election of 1854 the 
council was elected from three wards; the first being 
below Butler Street, the second and third above Butler, 
one west, and the other east, of Fourth. 

In the matter of local government there are two 
very different systems in the United States. In New 
England the town — answering to the " township " of 
Ohio — is the political unit. In all the Southern States 
till recently, and in most of them now, the county is 
clothed with the chief political power. The town has 
no existence, or, if existing, it is devoid of all political 
significance. 

The divisions subordinate to the county are gene- 
rally called precincts in the South. In Mississippi 



The System of Local Government in Ohio. 33 

whole counties have no other names for their subdivi- 
sions than those furnished by the ranges and townships ; 
as if we should know Lawrence only as Township 3, 
Range 7. In North Carolina the county seems to be 
divided numerically; as if Belpre were merely No. 4. 

The Ohio system is not strictly the town system of 
New England, or the county system of the South. h It 
is what is called the " compromise " system in the cen- 
sus report for 1870, and is found in the great Middle 
States and in most of the Western. The political power 
is divided between the county and the town; the for- 
mer has much more importance than in New England, 
and the latter has less. 

In the incorporation of Marietta as a town in 1800, 
the features of the town system are seen. The estab- 
lishment of the Court of Quarter Sessions with many of 
the powers now exercised by the county commissioners, 
showed the influence of the other system. General 
Putnam and his associates from New England were 
able to incorporate into the new communities of the 
West some of the features of the town system, while 
Governor St. Clair from Pennsylvania and John Cleves 
Symmes from New Jersey introduced various laws from 
those states. We may be thankful that we have as 
much as we have of the town system. The opinion of 
Mr. Jefferson on the merits of this system, Virginian 
though he was, was strongly expressed at different times. 
He recommended the division of the counties of Vir- 
ginia into wards of six miles square. rf These wards, 
called townships in New England, are the vital principle 
of their governments, and have proved themselves the 
wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the 
perfect exercise of self-government and for its preserva- 



SJj. Centennial Historical Address. 



tion." Again he says: "These little republics would 
be the main strength of the great one. We owe to them 
the vigor given to our revolution in its commencement 
in the Eastern States, and by them the Eastern States 
were enabled to repeal the embargo in opposition to the 
Middle, Southern and Western States and their large 
and lubberly divisions into counties which can never be 
assembled." 

The first court held in the territory was that of the 
Court of Common Pleas at Campus Martius, September 
2d, 1788. A procession was formed at the Point, 
where most of the settlers resided, in the follow- 
ing order: The high sheriff, with his drawn sword ; the 
citizens; the officers of the garrison at Fort Harmar; 
the members of the bar; the supreme judges; the gov- 
ernor and clergyman; and the newly appointed judges of 
the court, Generals Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tup- 
per. Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler, one of the directors of 
the Ohio Company, then here on a visit, opened the 
court with prayer; and Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, the 
sheriff, made official proclamation that "a court is opened 
for the administration of even-handed justice, to the 
poor and the rich, to the guilty and the innocent, with- 
out respect of persons." General Putnam alluding to 
this first court says: "happily for the credit of the peo- 
ple there was no suit either civil or criminal brought 
before the court." 

It is probable that the court continued to be held 
in the north-west block-house of Campus Martius for a 
number of years. As early as 1792 the Court of Quar- 
ter Sessions submitted estimates for a court-house and 
jail — $1,000 for each. In 1793 Thomas Lord was 
directed to take a log-house near Campus Martius and 



The Court- House of 1800. 35 

fit it up for a jail. Among the old papers in one of Dr. 
Hildreth's collections of manuscripts, now in the college 
library, is a bill of Nathan Mcintosh for two thousand 
and four hundred brick "delivered for the use of the 
old court-house,'"' bearing date December, 1797. This 
refers to a block-house at the Point, used then for courts. 

In 1799, Griffin Greene and Timothy Buell were 
appointed, by the Court of Common Pleas, commis- 
sioners to build a jail and court-house. They estimated 
the cost to be $3001,81. Contracts were made with 
Joshua Wells to frame and raise the building; with 
Joshua Shipman to weather-board and shingle the house, 
make the doors, lay the floors, etc.; with James Law- 
ton to do the mason work; and with Gilbert Devol, 
Jr., to furnish "three thousand weight of good iron" 
manufactured into spikes, bolts, grates, etc., etc., for 
which he was to receive sixteen cents a pound. The 
building was completed in 1800. The court-room was 
in the second story, being forty feet long by twenty 
broad. The walls of the jail were three feet thick, and 
the whole was built in the most substantial manner. 
Dr. Hildreth speaks of it in 1842 as at that time "one 
of the strongest prisons in the state." 

The subject of a new court-house was agitated in 
18 19. At a meeting of citizens held September 13th, 
a committee, consisting of Governor R. J. Meigs, Hon. 
Levi Barber, and D. H. Buell, Esq., reported in favor 
of a new building to be located at the corner of Second 
and Putnam streets — the present site. The next day 
the county commissioners passed a resolution to the 
same effect. The matter appeared to rest for two years, 
when the commissioners appointed Joseph Holden, the 
county treasurer, to superintend the delivery of the 



36 Centennial Historical Address. 

materials. In November, 1821, they advertised for a 
plan, the building to be forty-eight feet square, with a 
fire-proof office sixteen feet square in each corner. 

In the winter and spring of 1822, there was no little 
excitement as to the site of the new court-house. Many 
were opposed to the corner of Second and Putnam as 
too low, and favored a higher location. Some advo- 
cated the elevated square on Washington street; others 
wanted it on Fifth street near the mound. Petitions 
and counter-petitions were sent to the commissioners. 
On the 6th of March they decided to locate it on Fifth 
street, south of the cemetery, provided a better subscrip- 
tion could be obtained than for any other location. 
Three weeks later a public meeting was held, and a 
majority voted for the "Thierry lots" — where Judge 
Ewart now resides. At a meeting in April, the com- 
missioners resolved upon that location; but in the same 
month they re-considered their action, and again and 
finally, decided in favor of the corner of Second and 
Putnam streets. The edifice was completed in 1823. 

In 1854, the additional building on the north was 
erected, in which is the office of the probate judge. 
The court-house of 1823 has undergone another trans- 
formation the present year by adding to its length and 
height. The present jail was built in 1848, according 
to a plan furnished by Hon. R. E. Harte. It was pro- 
posed to place it on the same lot with the court-house, 
but in consideration of $500, paid by Dr. S. P. Hildreth 
and Mrs. Martha B. Wilson, living on the adjoining lots, 
the commissioners agreed to erect it upon the old site. 
It should be stated that the land where the present jail 
is, and where the old court-house stood, was given to 
the county by Judge Dudley Woodbridge; and that on 



Punishment in Early Times. 37 

which the present court-house stands was given by Col. 
Ebenezer Sproat. The bell is the same that was on the 
old court-house. It bears the inscription, " Barzillai 
Davison, Norwich, 1802." 

In the early days the jail served a double purpose: 
it was " for the reception and confinement of debtors 
and criminals." There were, however, two separate 
apartments for the two classes of prisoners. But crim- 
inals were punished in other ways besides confinement. 
By the law of September 6th, 1788, whipping and put- 
ting in the pillory and stocks, are enumerated among 
the modes of punishment. Thirty-nine "stripes" was 
the maximum. But by a state law of 1805, fifty-nine 
stripes might be inflicted for robbery, and one hundred 
for a second offence. In 181 1, fifty stripes might be in- 
flicted for destroying fruit trees. In 1788, drunkenness 
was punished by fine, but in failure of payment the 
offender w T as to sit in " the stocks for the space of one 
hour." 

In 1800, Robert Oliver, Griffin Greene and Robert 
Saffbrd, a committee appointed for the purpose, reported 
" that the north-west corner of the lot donated to the 
county by Col. E. Sproat is the most convenient place 
for the pound, and that in the same lot is sufficient space 
for the pillory, stocks and whipping post." The report 
is accompanied with drawings, made by Mr. Greene, 
who also drew the plan of the old court-house. The 
whipping-post, pillory and stocks, thus erected on the 
lot where the court-house now stands, remained prob- 
ably till after 1820. 

In this connection it may be stated that in 1856 the 
county commissioners of this county, in accordance with 
a law of the State, made provision for the labor on 



Centennial Historical Address. 



roads, quarries, etc., of convicts confined in the county 
jail, thus relieving the county in part of the cost of their 
maintenance. 

Provision for aiding the poor was made as early as 
1790, it having been made the duty of the Court of 
Quarter Sessions to appoint overseers of the poor in each 
township. In 1795, a very elaborate act, of thirty-two 
sections, was adopted from the statutes of Pennsylvania. 
" Two substantial inhabitants of every township" were 
to be appointed yearly as overseers. The law contains 
this singular provision, that the overseers going out of 
office should return to the justices the names of two or 
more substantial inhabitants, from which number their 
successors should be appointed for the ensuing year. 
And a failure to make such return made the person 
liable in the sum of twenty-five dollars. 

By a law of the first territorial assembly it was 
made the duty of the overseers to cause all the poor 
each year " to be farmed out at public vendue, or out- 
cry," to the lowest bidder. 

From 1804 the overseers of the poor were elected 
in each township. 

County poor-houses were authorized in 18 16, to be 
built under the direction of the county commissioners, 
who were also to appoint the directors. The term of 
service of the directors was at first seven years, but was 
reduced to three. The town of Marietta applied to the 
commissioners in 18 19 to build a poor-house for the 
county, but the application was rejected because, as was 
alleged, the townships would prefer to support their own 
poor. No step was taken in this direction till 1835, 
when land was bought of Dr. Jonas Moore for $1,200, 
and a contract was made with Daniels, Westgate and 
Alcock to erect a house for $2,040. 



The Children's Home. 39 

In June, 1836, the commissioners appointed Samp- 
son Cole, Eben Gates, and Wyllys Hall directors. In 
March, 1838, petitions were presented to change the 
location, and in December of that year a farm of 198 
acres was purchased for $2,536.58 — the present loca- 
tion. The next spring the other house and farm was 
sold to Dr. E. B. Perkins for $4,000. 

Since 1842 the directors have been elected by the 
people, and in 1850 the legislature changed the name 
" County Poorhouse " to " County Infirmary." 

The Children's Home has been in successful oper- 
ation for nearly ten years. The one in this county was 
the first established under the act providing for institu- 
tions of this character. The idea itself, indeed, origi- 
nated here. About 1858 Miss Catherine Fay, now 
Mrs. Ewing, took into her house a number of poor 
children, for whom she furnished support and instruct- 
ion, with some aid from the benevolent and some allow- 
ance from the infirmary directors. A bill was subse- 
quently introduced into the legislature by Hon. W. F. 
Curtis, the senator from this district, authorizing county 
commissioners to establish Children's Homes and provide 
for their support by taxation. The act was passed in 
May, 1866, Hon. S. S. Knowles then being the senator. 
The history of the institution, which was established 
soon after the passage of the act, is familiar to the peo- 
ple of the county. The present trustees are Hon. 
William R. Putnam, Hon. F. A. Wheeler, and Mr. W. 
Dudley Devol. Judge Putnam has taken a deep inter- 
est in it from the first, and has devoted to it a great deal 
of time and attention. ' Dr. Simeon D. Hart is the 
superintendent, and Mrs. Hart the matron. 

The first sermon in the Territory was preached Sun- 

1. For changes see Appendix. 



J/.0 Centennial Historical Address. 



day, July ioth, 1788, in the hall of the north-west block- 
house in Campus Martius by Rev. William Breck. 
Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler, who visited the colony the first 
summer, preached a number of times. In the spring of 
1789, Rev. Daniel Story came out, having been employed 
by the Ohio Company. He preached for a number of 
years, as well at Belpre and Waterford as at Marietta. 
He received a part of his support from the Company and 
a part from the people. 

The Congregational Church at Marietta was or- 
ganized December 6th, 1796, composed of members re- 
siding at Marietta, Belpre, Waterford, and Vienna, Vir- 
ginia. The first deacons were Dr. Josiah Hart of Mar- 
ietta, Joseph Spencer of Vienna, Benjamin Miles of 
Belpre, and Nathan Proctor of Waterford. Rev. Daniel 
Story was the first pastor, installed by a council convened 
at Hamilton, Mass., August 15th, 1798. Rev. Samuel 
P. Robbins became the pastor January 8th, 1806; Rev. 
Luther G. Bingham, May 3, 1826; Rev. Thomas Wickes, 
D. D., July 28th, 1840; and the present pastor, Rev. 
Theron H. Hawks, D. D., October 27th, 1869. The 
pastorate of Dr. Wickes extended from 1840 to 1869, 
being longer than any other in the county. 

The Congregational Church at Belpre was organ- 
ized in 1826, and tha,t at Harmar in 1840. The Town 
Hall in Harmar was used for worship till November 
27th, 1847, when the present church edifice was dedi- 
cated, having been erected on ground given by the late 
David Putnam, Esq. There are at this time ten Con- 
gregational Churches in the county. 

The First Religious Society in Marietta was 
formed March 2d, 1801. The original articles of asso- 
ciation, with 128 autograph signatures, have been pre- 



Religious Organizations. Jfl 

served. This society was incorporated by the legisla- 
ture February 4th, 1807, two others being incorporated 
the same winter — an Episcopal society at Worthington, 
and a Presbyterian at Cincinnati. These were the first 
religious societies incorporated in the State. This First 
Society in Marietta was connected with the Congrega- 
tional church, and worshiped in the " Muskingum 
Academy," till the present church was dedicated May 
28th, 1809. 

A Presbyterian congregation was gathered in 
Marietta very early, and Rev. Stephen Lindley was em- 
ployed as minister in January, 1804. On the 18th 
of that month the Second Religious Society was 
formed. The date of the organization of the church I 
cannot give, or the length of time that Mr. Lindley 
ministered to them. On the declaration of war with 
Great Britian in 181 2, he became a chaplain in the 
army. January 25th, 1813, the legislature incorporated 
the " First Presbyterian Society in the town of Marietta, 
called the Second Religious Society." This society 
received aid from the ministerial funds derived from 
section 29, till 1818. 

A Presbyterian church was formed at Waterford 
at an early day. It is supposed to be the same as the 
present Cumberland Presbyterian church at Beverly, 
and is probably the oldest church but one in the county. 

A Presbyterian church was organized at Marietta 
in 1 84 1, which continued in existence about twenty- 
five years, though regular worship was not maintained 
during the whole period. The frame edifice on Third 
street near Greene was erected by them. 

The Fourth Street Presbyterian Church was formed 
in 1865, and their house of worship on Fourth street 



Jj.® Centennial Historical Address. 

near Wooster, was erected the same year. Both this 
and the one formed in 1841 were chiefly colonies from 
the Congregational church. There are now six Pres- 
byterian churches in the county. 

Besides the " First " and the " Second " Religious 
Societies formed in Marietta in 1801 and 1804, there 
were three other societies organized in 1805 and 1806. 

The " Religious Meeting House Society" organ- 
ized April 15th, 1805, seems not to have contemplated 
the support of public worship, but simply " the impor- 
tant and laudable purpose of erecting a Meeting House 
in the town of Marietta, to be consecrated and devoted 
to the public worship of Almighty God." To this end 
the members " solemnly and irrevocably transfer " all 
their dividends from the ministerial rents for the period 
of seven years. It was this society that commenced 
the erection of the laro-e brick builclins: on Third street 
below Greene. As some of those who were active in 
this society were among those who in 1804 employed 
Rev. Mr. Lindley, it may be inferred that this edifice 
was ultimately intended as the place of worship for the 
Presbyterian church. But the building was never com- 
pleted as a church. Both the " Second Religious So- 
ciety " and the " Religious Meeting House Society " 
continued for some years to receive dividends from the 
rents of section 29; the former to 18 18, and the latter 
to 1816. 

The " Fourth Religious Society " was formed in 
1805, and was composed of persons living east of Duck 
Creek. The last ministerial dividend to that society 
was in 18 12. 

The " Union Religious Society" w T as formed in 
1805 or 1806, and its members were chiefly or wholly 



Religious Organizations. Jj.3 

made up of residents of Harmar. It received dividends 
from the ministerial rents to 1818. 

It will be noted that of the five religious societies 
organized in Marietta from 1801 to 1806, no one had a 
denominational designation, and that only one of the 
five is still in existence. The other four had become 
extinct before 1820. 

The first Methodist Episcopal organization in 
Marietta was in 181 2. The first house of worship was 
built in 18 14 — the frame edifice on Second street north 
of Scammel, now occupied by the German Methodists. 
The church on Putnam street was built in 1839, and 
hence its name, The Centenary Church. The Metho- 
dist church in Harmar, now called Crawford Chapel, 
was formed in 1849, anc ^ the second charge in Marietta, 
or Whitney Chapel, in i860. 1- 

The Universalist Society was formed in 18 17, and 
the frame building on Second street, formerly used for 
worship, was built about 1842. For some years the 
members of this society have worshiped with the Uni- 
tarians, but they still maintain their distinctive organi- 
zation. An act was passed February 2d, 1832, to incor- 
porate the "" First Universalian Religious Library Society 
of Marietta." Mr. John Delafield, Jr., in his pamphlet 
published in 1834, says, the "society devotes the prop- 
erty which annually accrues to its treasury to the ac- 
quisition of an extensive and valuable miscellaneous 
library." This appropriation of their portion of the 
ministerial funds long since ceased, and the library is 
not now in existence. 

A Universalist society was organized in Harmar 
in 1839, and continued till 1849. The church in Belpre 

1. The two congregations in Marietta have now united, and worship in the Centenary 
Church. 



Jfjf, Centennial Historical Address. 



was formed in 1823, and is said to be the oldest church of 
the denomination in the State. The present number of 
organizations in the county is nine. 

A Baptist church was organized in 18 18 in Mari- 
etta township. The first edifice in the county was 
the brick church near Cornerville, east of the Little 
Muskingum. The organization in the town of Marietta 
was in 1833, and the edifice on Church street was built 
in 1835. The present church on Putnam street was 
erected in 1854. Rev. Jeremiah Dale was one of the 
early preachers in this region, doing missionary wo;*k 
over a large territory. He died in 183 1. Rev. Hiram 
Gear, who died in 1843, had been pastor of the church 
in Marietta for six years. There are at this time four- 
teen Baptist churches in the county. 

A Protestant Episcopal organization was made 
as early as 1827 in Marietta, and an act "to incorporate 
St. Luke's Church" was passed by the legislature Jan. 
9th, 1833. The church building at the corner of Fourth 
and Scammel streets was opened November 2 2d, 1834, 
and occupied by this church till 1857, when the present 
house on Second street was erected. Rev. Dr. John 
Boyd has been here since 1850^ making his continuous 
clerical service longer than that of any other clergyman 
in the county except Rev. Dr. .Wickes. 

The Roman Catholic Society was organized in 
1839, and their present church edifice on Fourth street 
was erected in 1853. There are two churches in Union 
township and one in Ludlow. 

In 1840 the first German Church in Marietta was 
organized — the German Evangelical Church, St. 
PauTs. Though not in organic connection with the 
Lutheran Synod of Ohio, their present pastor is a mem- 



Religious Organizations. 4-5 

ber of that body. Their house of worship, at the corner 
of Fifth and Scammel streets, was built in 1848. 

The Gei man Methodist Episcopal Church was 
formed in 1842, and has occupied from its organiza- 
tion the house on Second street, built by the Methodist 
congregation now worshiping at the Centenary church. 

In 185 1 a third German organization was made, the 
German Evangelical Church of St. Lucas. They oc- 
cupy as their place of worship the house erected by the 
Protestant Episcopal church at the corner of Fourth 
and Scammel streets. 

The Unitarian Church at the corner of Third and 
Putnam streets was erected in 1855. This edifice, which 
is the finest in the place, was built at the expense of 
Mr. Nahum Ward, and with organ and bell was pre- 
sented to the society. 

The Church of the United Brethren was organ- 
ized in 1857, and their house on Fourth street north of 
Greene was erected in 1866. 

In 187 1 the African Methodist Church first re- 
ceived aid from the ministerial rents, though they had 
maintained worship for some time before that. For 
some years they have occupied the frame building on 
Third street built for a Presbyterian church. 

In 181 2 a Bible Society was formed at Marietta, of 
which General Rufus Putnam was president. It is re- 
ferred to by the correspondents of General Putnam as the 
" Ohio Bible Society," and bibles and testaments were 
sent here from New York and Philadelphia, to be dis- 
tributed at prominent points both in this State and in 
Indiana Territory. 

In 18 14 (October 10th), was formed the "Society 
for the promotion of good morals."'' The object was 



J/,6 Centennial Historical Address. 

" to promote good morals, and discountenance vice 
universally; particularly to discourage profaneness, 
gross breaches of the Sabbath, idleness, and intemper- 
ance; and especially to discourage intemperance." The 
first officers were Rev. S. P. Robbins, president, David 
I. Burr, vice president, and David Putnam, secretary. 

In the fall of 1818 a committee, consisting of David 
Putnam, Wm. R. Putnam, and James Whitney, wrote 
to Governor Worthington asking him to call the atten- 
tion of the legislature to the subject of intemperance, 
which he did. They then memorialized the legislature 
on the subject asking for action, and saying, " It has 
been a subject of regret to your memorialists while 
perusing the statutes of this State, that no paragraph or 
expression can be found which censures this offence." 

In 18 1 7 this society voted to establish a Sunday 
School, and the records for 18 19 show that three schools 
were in operation under its general care. One was at 
the " Muskingum Academy," under the charge of Mr. 
William Holyoke, one at the " brick house on Point 
Harmar," under Mr. William Slocomb, and one for 
small scholars at " BuelTs school room " at the Point, 
under the care of Mrs. Whipple and Mrs. Merwin. 

A temperance society was formed July 31, 1830. 
The officers were, president, Ephraim Emerson; vice 
presidents, Rev. Jacob Young and Robert Crawford; 
secretary, Rev. L. G.Bingham; treasurer, Wyllys Hall; 
executive committee, Caleb Emerson, Junia Jennings, 
Douglas Putnam, Samuel Shipman. 

From the character of the early settlers more at- 
tention to education might have been expected than in 
most new settlements. As early as 1790 the directors 
of the Ohio Company appropriated money for schools 



The Muskingum Academy. If 7 

in Marietta, Belpre and Waterford. From the very 
first there were schools in which instruction was given 
by persons of high literary attainments. At Belpre, 
Daniel Mayo, a graduate of Harvard, taught for a num- 
ber of winters, and others who had received collegiate 
training were employed to some extent in the work of 
instruction. 

Before the first decade had passed steps were taken 
to establish a regular academy at Marietta. On the 
29th of April, 1797, a number of the citizens convened 
"to consider measures for promoting the education of 
youth," and a committee was appointed to prepare a 
plan of a house suitable for the instuction of youth and 
for religious purposes, to estimate the expense and 
recommend a site. The committee consisted of Gen- 
eral Rufus Putnam, Paul Fearing, Griffin Greene, R. J. 
Meigs, Jr., Charles Greene, and Joshua Shipman. At 
the end of a week the committee made their report at 
an adjourned meeting. They presented a plan ol the 
house, estimated the expense at $1,000, and recom- 
mended city lot No. 605 — the lot on Front street, north 
of the Congregational church. As the best mode of 
raising the money they suggested "that the possessors 
of ministerial lands lying on the Ohio river between 
Heart's ditch and the south end of Front street, and on 
Front street, and between Front street and the Muskin- 
gum river, do pay at the rate of one dollar for every 
one-third of an acre which they respectively possess." 
Assessments on other lands were recommended and a 
subscription to meet deficiencies. 

The report was accepted as to the plan of the 
house, the cost and the location; but the method of 
securing funds was modified so as "to assess the pos- 



Jf8 Centennial Historical Address. 

sessors of ministerial lands in proportion to the value 
of their respective possessions." The sums thus paid, 
either by assessment or subscription, were to be consid- 
ered as stock, at the rate often dollars a share; and the 
stockholders were entitled to votes according to their 
shares. At a meeting in August of that year fifty-nine 
shares were represented, of which thirty belonged to 
General Putnam. 

Thus originated the Muskingum Academy, which 
was probably the first structure of the kind erected in 
the North-west territory. It was used for educational 
purposes till 1832, when it was removed to Second 
street, near the Rhodes block, where it is still standing. 
It was also used on the Sabbath as a place of worship 
till 1809, when the Congregational church was com- 
pleted. 

David Putnam, Esq., a graduate of Yale College, 
was the first instructor in the Muskingum Academy. 
Among the others who taught before the removal of the 
old academy, were Benjamin F. Stone, Morris B. 
Belknap, N. K. Clough, Caleb Emerson, Jonas Moore, 
David Gilmore, Edwin Putnam, Elisha Huntington, 1 
William A. Whittlesey, William Slocomb, John K. 
Joline. 

In 1830, Rev. L. G. Bingham established "The 
Institute of Education," comprising an Infant School, 
Primary School, Ladies Seminary and High School. 
The next year Mr. Mansfield French became joint pro- 
prietor with Mr. Bingham; Mr. N. Brown, a graduate 
of Williams College, having charge of the High School, 
and Miss Spalding, from Ipswich, Mass., of the Ladies 
Seminar)'. In 1832 Mr. Henry Smith, a graduate of 
Middlebury College, was the principal of the High 

1. Afterwards Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. 



Marietta College Established. ^.9 

School, and Miss D. T. Wells— afterwards Mrs. D. P. 
Bosworth — was associated with Miss Spalding in the 
Ladies Seminary. The High School prospered greatly, 
and in the December following a charter was obtained 
under the style of the " Marietta Collegiate Institute," 
and a board of trustees was appointed. In the autumn 
of 1833 it was opened as a public institution in what is 
now the dormitory building on the College square. A 
new charter was obtained February 14th, 1835, under 
the name of " Marietta College." 

The Seminary for young ladies also passed into the 
hands of the same corporation, though the two institu- 
tions were kept distinct so far as instruction was con- 
cerned. The ladies at the head of it were successively 
Miss Spalding, Miss Wells, Miss C. M. Webster, Miss 
S. Jaquith, and Mrs. L. Tenney. In 1843 the seminary 
property was sold by the trustees, but the institution 
was continued for a number of years under the charge 
of Mrs. Tenney. 

The original trustees of the college were Luther 
G. Bingham, John Cotton, Caleb Emerson, John Mills, 
John Crawford, Arius Nye, Douglas Putnam, Jonas 
Moore, and Anselm T. Nye. But Messrs. John Craw- 
ford and Arius Nye did not act under the second char- 
ter. The members of the first faculty were Henry 
Smith, professor of Languages; D. Howe Allen, pro- 
fessor of Mathematics; Milo P. Jewett, professor of 
Rhetoric and principal of the Teachers department; 
and Samuel Maxwell, principal of the Preparatory 
department. In 1835 Rev. Joel H. Linsley was elected 
president, and held the office till 1846. President 
Henry Smith was at the head of the college from 1846, 
to 1855, when he was succeeded by the present presi- 
dent, Israel W. Andrews. 



50 Centennial Historical Address. 



The first class was graduated in 1838, since which 
the succession of classes has been unbroken. The 
whole number of graduates in the classical course is 
four hundred and thirty-five, with twelve who have 
completed a scientific course. 1- Of the whole number, 
one hundred and forty-three, or thirty-two per cent. 
have been from Washington county. For the last few 
years the county has furnished to the college classes an 
average of forty students, being one college student for 
each thousand of the population. 

The pioneers of this settlement and the directors 
of the Ohio Company showed their interest in education 
by causing to be inserted in their contract with the 
government for their purchase, a provision that two 
townships of land should be appropriated for a university, 
and one section in each township for schools. The two 
townships, as General Putnam says in a letter to Hon. 
Paul Fearing, dated November 20th, 1800, were "in 
fact more of a donation of the Ohio Company than of 
the United States, as this was a part of the considera- 
tion which induced the directors of the company to 
agree to purchase the other lands." The good General 
seemed to be disappointed even at that early day, that 
the generous example of the company had not been 
followed. He was looking for gifts to be made by in- 
dividuals, and writes: "Is there no public spirit to be 
found in the Territory except only in the proprietors of 
the Ohio Company ? * * Is it not possible 

that some worthy,, able, public-spirited gentlemen in 
Adams and Ross counties * * may make 

donations to the institution ?" He evidently did not 
expect that the land would make a sufficient endow- 
ment, but was looking for the gift of the company to 

i. This includes the class of 1877. 



Educational Institutions. 51 



be supplemented by other gifts from generous, public- 
spirited men. 

The author of a recent work on American State 
Universities, after speaking of the obstacles which the 
institution at Athens has had to encounter, adds : "The 
very movers in the work, long ago discouraged, estab- 
lished a college at theirbefoved Marietta." The college at 
Marietta may indeed be justly regarded as the child of 
the pioneers; for by the descendants of those that gave 
the two townships has it been established and sustained; 
and its eminent success may be attributed largely to 
this, that it embodies and represents the spirit and culture 
of those who came in the last century to found here a 
new home. 

It is an item of historical interest that about sixty 
of the graduates of the college are the lineal descend- 
ants of those who settled on the lands of the Ohio 
Company prior to 1800, representing more than forty of 
the early settlers. 

As illustrative of the continuance of interest in the 
institution, and the increase in successive donations as 
the ability to give increased, this fact may be stated. 
Among the donors in the first effort made at Marietta 
in March, 1833, there were seven whose contributions 
amounted in the aggregate to $2,250; the gifts ranging 
from $50 to $1,000. The total donations made to the 
college by these seven gentlemen to the present time 
amount to over $95,000. And the citizens of Marietta 
and the immediate vicinity have given, in all, the sum 
of $165,000. 

An institution was opened at Beverly, in Novem- 
ber, 1842, under the name of the Beverly College, Re'v. 
J. P. Wethee, president. It was started under the aus- 



52 Centennial Historical Address. 

pices of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The 
building was erected by Mr. John Dodge, and Mr. Ben- 
jamin Dana made a donation in land. Besides the 
building and lot there is a fund of two thousand dollars 
or more. The institution has been in operation most of 
the time since 1842, as an academy or high school, 
and a considerable number of young people of both 
sexes have enjoyed its advantages; some have been 
prepared to enter college, in a few instances joining the 
Sophomore or Junior classes. 

An Academy was commenced in Harmar about 
1845, through the efforts of some of her citizens, and con- 
tinued in successful operation for a number of years, 
till the re-organization of the public schools. As an 
academy, and as the high school department of the 
public schools, it was an efficient institution, preparing 
a large number of young men for college. Among the 
teachers may be named Messrs. Henry Bates, John 
Giles, and George H. Howison. 

The Marietta public schools up to 1849, were five 
in number, in five separate districts, each with its own 
directors. The question of consolidating the schools 
under one board of education, and introducing the 
union or graded system, was first agitated in the fall of 
1848. At that time but few towns in Ohio had intro- 
duced the new system, but its workings had been so 
successful that the people of Marietta were disposed to 
make trial of it. The first board of education was 
elected in the spring of 1849, consisting of E. H. Allen, 
I. W. ^Andrews, Lucius Brigham, Robert Crawford, 
T. W. Ewart, and Rufus E. Harte; and the schools 
went into operation under what was then known as the 
Akron law. 



Educational Institutions. 53 



The Marietta Liberal Institute was established in 
1849, under the patronage of the Universalists. An 
edifice was erected on Second street below Butler. In- 
struction in the higher branches was given to young 
people of both sexes for a number of years, and the in- 
stitution w r as well patronized. The first principal was 
Mr. Paul Kendall. 

For some years a school has been in operation in 
Wesley township, the Bartlett Academy, which is be- 
lieved to be in a flourishing condition. 

Besides Marietta and Harmar, the towns of Belpre, 
Beverly, and Newport, and perhaps others, have the 
graded system of public schools in operation. Belpre 
has just erected a fine building, probably the best public 
school edifice in the county. 

The township of Lawrence happens to be the pos- 
sessor of an educational fund of some $25,000, derived 
from an oil well on one of the school district lots; which 
it is hoped may be used for the support of a central 
school of higher grade for the more advanced pupils of 
the township. 

As an educational item mention should be made of 
the Washington County School Association which was 
formed in 1837. The first officers were William Slo- 
comb, president, Theodore Scott, vice president, Thomas 
W. Ewart, secretary. At the semi-annual meeting in 
May, 1838, an address was delivered by Samuel Lewis, 
Esq., the first State Superintendent of Schools in Ohio. 
The records of this association show that many of the 
leading citizens of the county participated in its pro- 
ceedings, and that many valuable addresses were de- 
livered. The last meeting was held in 1854, prior to 
which time the school system of the State had been re- 
organized. 



54 Centennial Historical Address. 



Among the public men to whom the cause of 
popular education in Ohio was greatly indebted in the 
early histo.ry of the State, none deserves more promi- 
nence than Judge Ephraim Cutler. He was a represen- 
tative in 1819-20, and in 1822-23, and a senator from 
1823 to 1825; and his attention was largely devoted to 
the subjects of equitable taxation and the system of 
common schools. In 1822 he was appointed by Gov- 
ernor Trimble one of seven commissioners to report a 
system of education adapted to common schools. In 
February, 1825, the first general school law was passed 
by the legislature, providing for a liberal support of 
schools by general taxation. Mr. Walker, in his His- 
tory of Athens County, after speaking of Judge Cutler's 
efforts to reform the system of taxation, says : " His other 
great achievement at this time was the establishment of 
an excellent common school system. * * We do 
not aver that he alone deserves the credit for the success 
of the measure in the legislature of 1824-25 but he was 
the acknowledged leader of the friends of common 
schools, and his experience in public affairs and as a 
legislator rendered his services of the greatest value." 

At different times organizations for mutual improve- 
ment have existed, which have called out the efforts of 
the members and been productive of benefit. A Lyceum 
was formed in February, 1831, with the following 
officers: John Cotton, president; Caleb Emerson, vice- 
president; Arius Nye, corresponding secretary; James 
M. Booth, recording secretary; John Mills, treasurer; 
Arius Nye, S. P. Hildreth, curators. Before this Ly- 
ceum various lectures were delivered; among others by 
Dr. John Cotton, Dr. S. P. Hildreth, John Delafield, Jr., 
Wm. A. Whittlesey, John Brough. About ten years 



Libraries and Newspapers. o-~> 

later another lyceum was formed which was very well 
sustained for a considerable period. Dr. Cotton gave 
lectures on Mesmerism, Hon. Arius Nye on Banking, 
and gentlemen connected with the college lectured on 
various subjects. 

As earl)' as 1810 the Fearing Library Society 
was incorporated. The act of incorporation named 
Thomas Stanley, Robert Baird, and Elisha Allen as di- 
rectors; John Miller as treasurer; and Daniel G. Stanley 
as librarian. The Society was limited to three thousand 
dollars of property besides books, maps, and charts. 

The Marietta Library was formed, and books pur- 
chased, in 1829, and an act of incorporation obtained 
February 9th, 1830. The corporators named were John 
Cotton, John Mills, Anselm T. Nye, Samuel P. Hil- 
dreth, and Daniel H. Buell. The corporation was re- 
stricted in clear annual income to two thousand dollars, 
and it was provided that none of the funds should " ever 
be applied to the purposes of banking." This library 
has been in operation to the present time, and for most 
of the period has been kept in the brick building on 
Front street, which was erected by the library com- 
pany. The number of books is over 3,000. 

The first newspaper published in the county was 
the Ohio Gazette and the Territorial and Virginia 
Herald, printed by Wyllys Silliman, and edited by 
Elijah Backus. It was first issued in December, 1801. 
(The third number of the first volume bears the date 
January 1st, 1802). I- Mr. Silliman within two years 
sold the paper to Mr. Backus, and he soon after sold to 
Fairlamb and Gates. In 1805 Samuel Fairlamb pur- 
chased it and changed the name to Ohio Gazette and 

1. In the library of the Antiquarian Society at Worcester, Mass. 



5G Centennial Historical Address. 



Virginia Herald. (Volume I, No. 47 is dated April 
24th, i8o6). 1- He probably continued it, though some- 
what irregularly, till 1810. 

The Western Spectator was established October 
23d, 18 10. It was printed by Joseph Israel for Caleb 
Emerson. In December, 181 1, Thomas G. Ransom be- 
came the publisher, Mr. Emerson continuing as editor- 
This paper was published for about two years and a 
half, and then sold to the proprietors of the American 
Friend. 

The first number of the Friend was issued April 
24th, 18 13. It was edited by David Everett, and printed 
by T. G. Ransom for D. Everett, T. Buell, and D. H. 
Buell. Mr. Everett died December 21st, of that year. 
He was the author of the lines beginning 

You'd scarce expect one of my age 
To speak in public on the stage. 

Mr. D. H. Buell became the editor January 1st, 18 14. 
In April of that year Royal Prentiss appears as one of 
the publishers. The number for March 15th, 18 16, Vol. 
3, No. 27, appeared as Vol. 1, No. 1, New Series, printed 
by Royal Prentiss. With the first number of Vol. 8, 
June 26th, 1823, the name was changed to American 
Friend and Marietta Gazette, printed and published 
by R. & G. Prentiss. Vol. 11, No. 1, has R. Prentiss as 
printer and publisher, and the paper was so continued to 
Vol. 17, No. 21, May nth, 1833. Mr. Prentiss went 
into the printing office in 1801, and worked on the first 
number of the first paper. 

In 1833 the paper was purchased by John Delafield, 

Jr. and Edward W. N}^, and was called the Marietta 

Gazette. In 1836 it was under the editorial charge of 

Mr. Caleb Emerson. In December, 1837, it was pur- 

1. In the library at Worcester, Mass. 



Newspapers. 5 7 



chased by Isaac Maxon. Prior to its union with the 
Intelligencer in 1842, Mr. Edmund B. Flagg was for a 
while connected with it. 

The first number of the Marietta Intelligencer 
appeared August 29th, 1839, edited by Beman Gates, 
and published by G. W. & C. D. Tyler. In 1842 the 
Marietta Gazette was purchased and consolidated with 
the Intelligencer. In 1844 G. W. Tyler and B. Gates 
were the publishers, and in 1845 Mr. Gates became sole 
publisher as well as editor. A tri-weekly edition 
was started October nth, 185 1, and was continued to 
January 3d, 1861. In April, 1856, T. L. Andrews be- 
came the publisher and editor, conducting it till 1862, 
when it was purchased by Rodney M. Stimson. Mr. 
Stimson changed the name to Marietta Register, and 
conducted the paper till 187 1. Mr. E. R. Alderman 
became the proprietor in that year, and is still the pub- 
lisher. The Register claims to be the successor of the 
Ohio Gazette and Virginia Herald, and so to have 
been established in 1801 ; having thus had, though under 
different names, a continuity of life for more than three 
quarters of a century. 

There have been various other papers published in 
the county at different times. 

The Commentator and Marietta Recorder was 
started September 16th, 1807, by James B. Gardiner. 
In August, 1808, it was called simply The Commenta- 
tor; and in June, 1809, Israel and Gardiner appear as 
the printers and publishers. It was continued for two 
or three years, and in politics was opposed to the party 
then in power. 

The Marietta Minerva appeared in October, 1823, 
published by John K. and A. V. D. Joline. It was sus- 



58 Centennial Historical Address. 

m 

pended in November, 1824. The paper advocated the 
claims of Henry Clay to the presidency. 

The Marietta and Washington County Pilot, by 
George Dunlevy and A. V. D. Joline, was first issued 
April 7th, 1826. At first neutral in politics, it espoused 
the cause of Andrew Jackson in August, 1824. The 
last number was in May, 1830. 

The Western Republican and Marietta Adver- 
tiser was started January 8th, 183 1, by John Brough 
before he was twenty years of age. In 1833 he re- 
moved the paper to Parkersburg, Virginia, and a few 
months later to Lancaster, Ohio. 

The Marietta Democrat, by Charles B. Flood, 
appeared in August, 1835. It was published for about 
two years. 

The Washington County Democrat was started 
in April, 1840, by Daniel Radebaugh, Jr., continuing, 
however, but for a short time. 

The Marietta Republican was first issued Novem- 
ber 28th, 1849, Amos Layman, editor. In 1853 A. W. 
McCormick became the proprietor, Mr. L. continuing 
a year as associate editor. In 1858 Mr. McC. sold to 
A. J. Campbell & Co., A. O. Wagstaff becoming the 
editor. In February, i860, W. Scott became proprietor, 
with McCormick editor till October, 1861, then C. 
Rhodes till its discontinuance in November, 1863. 

The Home News, a small paper in quarto form, was 
commenced by E. Winchester, January 1st, 1859. In 
1862 it was sold to Mr. Stimson and merged in the 
Register. 

The Marietta Times was established by Walter 
C. Hood, the first number having been issued Septem- 
ber 24th, 1864. Since August 1st, 187 1, it has been 
owned and edited by S. M. McMillen. 



Taxation of Land. 59 



The first German paper in this part of the State 
was established by William Lorey, August 3d, 1856, 
the Marietta Demokrat, which was continued for nine 
years. 

The Marietta Zeitung was started by E. Win- 
chester in the fall of 1868. Since March, 1869, it has 
been published by Jacob Mueller. 

In February, 1825, a measure was carried through the 
legislature, which was closely connected with the finan- 
cial interests of the State, and especially this part of it. 
Prior to the admission of Ohio into the Union a law 
had been published by the Governor and Judges of the 
Territory, dividing the unimproved land into three 
classes for the purposes of taxation. This division of 
the land into first, second, and third classes continued 
till 1825, and operated very injuriously to the interests 
of this portion of the State. A public meeting was 
held at Marietta, December 28th, 18 16, to call the at- 
tention of the legislature to this unequal taxation. It 
was asserted that land in Hamilton County, worth $c;o.oo 
an acre, was taxed no higher than land in this county, 
worth fifty cents. A committee was appointed to 
memorialize the legislature, consisting of Paul Fearing, 
G. Turner, Nahum Ward, W. R. Putnam, and D. H. 
Buell. 

In the winter of 1819-20, Judge Ephraim Cutler, a 
representative from this county, introduced into the leg- 
islature a joint resolution that property should be taxed 
according to its true value, which passed the House of 
Representatives. In the fall of 1823 he was elected to 
the Senate, and renewed his efforts to secure a reform 
in the revenue system. He was appointed the chair- 
man of the committee on the revenue. The projec 



60 Centennial Historical Address. 

of a canal between Lake Erie and the Ohio river had 
come up and Judge Cutler succeeded in convincing the 
friends of that measure that it must inevitably fail unless 
based upon a broad, judicious, and equitable system of 
taxation. To him more than to any other are we in- 
debted for the law then enacted. The language of his 
contemporaries clearly shows that he was regarded as 
the author. 

Hon. Samuel F. Vinton writes from Washington, 
December 21st, 1824: "We ought to offer up our most 
unceasing prayers that your plan for the equalization of 
taxes may be at the same time adopted. Without it 
inevitable ruin would await the sparse-peopled and 
sterile parts of the State. In fact those parts of the 
State will be virtually ruined under the present system 
of taxation in defraying the ordinary expenses of the 
government. 

Ingenuity, in my opinion, could not devise a sys- 
tem more unequal, unjust, and oppressive. I am de- 
cidedly in favor of improving the inland navigation of 
the State by canals, if possible; but I hope you will 
perseveringly press upon the legislature your plan of 
taxation in conjunction with it." 

The " Act establishing an equitable mode of levy- 
ing taxes of this State," was passed February 3d, 1825; 
and an " Act to provide for the internal improvement 
of the State of Ohio by navigable Canals," February 
4th, 1825. 

There were no mail arrangements here till 1794, 
and of course no post-office. On the 24th of May of 
that year the Postmaster-General, Timothy Pickering, 
writes to General R. Putnam: "It is proposed to at- 
tempt the carriage of a mail from Pittsburg to Wheel- 






The Post- Office and the First Postmaster. 61 

ing by land, and thence by water to Limestone (now 
Maysville). From Limestone by a new road on the 
southern side of the Ohio to the mouth of Licking, op- 
posite to Fort Washington. * * Marietta will 
be a station for the boats to stop at as they pass; and 
doubtless it will be convenient to have a post-office 
there. Herewith I send a packet addressed to you, to 
be put into the hands of the person you judge most 
suitable for postmaster." The person selected by Gene- 
ral Putnam was Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr. The fit- 
ness of the selection is shown in the fact that twenty 
years later this deputy postmaster became the Post- 
master-General of the United States, which office he held 
for nine years. 

In the same letter General Putnam was requested 
to select a postmaster for Gallipolis also, which he did. 
In January, 1795, Colonel Pickering requested General 
P. to take the whole management of this arrange- 
ment from Wheeling to Fort Washington (Cincinnati). 
He writes: " I am solicitous to commit the whole busi- 
ness to your direction." 

The mail was first carried to Zanesville in 1798. 
Daniel Convers was the contractor, and the schedule 
required the mail to " leave Marietta every Thursday at 
one o'clock, P. M., arrive at Zanes Town next Monday 
at eight o'clock, P. M. Returning, leave Zanes Town 
every Tuesday at six o'clock, A. M., and arrive at Mari- 
etta on Wednesday at six o'clock, P. M." (The schedule 
and the filling up of the contract are in the handwriting 
of the Postmaster-General, Joseph Habersham). 

The citizens of the county have had broad views 
as to public improvements. The letter of General Put- 
nam to General Washington in 1783 showed careful 
study of the subject of routes of travel and transportation. 



62 Centennial Historical Address. 

In 1804, when measures were agitated in Congress 
for a road from the seaboard to the Ohio river, a com- 
mittee of gentlemen issued a circular showing reasons 
for bringing the road to a point opposite Marietta. The 
circular is signed by R. J. Meigs, Jr., Joseph Buell, 
Rufus Putnam, Matthew Backus, David Putnam, Benj. 
I. Gilman, Paul Fearing and Dudley Woodbridge. 

In 183 1 a letter, signed by S. P. Hildreth, Arius 
Nye, A. V. D. Joline, Augustus Stone, and Levi Bar- 
ber, was addressed to Judge Cutler, requesting him to 
prepare a statement as to a road from Winchester to the 
Ohio river, to be laid before the legislature of Virginia. 

A public meeting was held at the court-house 
January 3d, 1835, to consider the question of the im- 
provement of the Muskingum river, and a memorial 
was prepared and laid before the legislature. A bill 
was introduced the following winter by Isaac Hum- 
phries, representative from this county, ordering the 
work and appropriating $400,000 for the purpose. The 
bill passed the House February 5th, and the Senate 
March 4th. 

In 1837 a committee appointed at a county meet- 
ing commissioned Judge Cutler to go to Baltimore to 
confer with Mr. McLane, the president of the Balti- 
more and Ohio Railroad, with regard to the route of 
that road, which had then been built about eighty miles. 
The letter to Judge C. bears the signatures of Nahum 
Ward, Caleb Emerson, John Mills, David Barber, 
Augustus Stone, and Joseph Barker. 

These early efforts show the active interest felt by 
our citizens in the works of public improvement. It 
is not necessary to call attention to what Washington 
county men have done for railroads in Ohio. It was 



Flour Mills and Ship-building. 63 

their energy that carried through the road to Cincinnati 
against obstacles that seemed insurmountable. Messrs. 
W. P. Cutler, N. L. Wilson, John Mills, Douglas Put- 
nam, Beman Gates, and Wm. S. Nye were connected 
with the road, some of them from its beginning. The 
Hocking Valley road was projected in good part by 
Marietta men, and we all know the energy which 
General A. J. Warner has exerted in pushing forward 
the Marietta, Pittsburg and Cleveland road. 

The first flour mills in Ohio were on Wolf Creek 
about a mile from its mouth, erected in 1789, by Col. 
Robert Oliver, Major Haffield White, and Captain John 
Dodge. Mills were commenced soon after on Duck 
Creek by Enoch Shepherd with Colonel E. Sproat and 
Thomas Stanley, but the Indian war and the flood in- 
terrupted. In 1798 a floating mill was built five miles 
up the Muskingum by Captain Jonathan Devol, which, 
says Dr. Hildreth, for some years did nearly all the 
grinding for the inhabitants on the Ohio and Muskin- 
gum for fifty miles above and below the mill. The 
" Marietta Steam Mill " (in Harmar), was completed in 
1811. 

The first tannery was established by Colonel 
Ichabod Nye in 179 1. In 18 13 a cotton factory was 
built for a company, of which William Woodbridge, 
Joseph Holden, and S. P. Hildreth were directors. Dr. 
N. Mcintosh was the contractor, and his son, our ven- 
erable fellow citizen Colonel E. S. Mcintosh, says, he 
himself laid the brick. The building was on Putnam 
street, between Fourth and Fifth, and twenty years after 
was converted into the old " Academy." 

Ship-building was commenced at Marietta in 1801 
by B. I. Gilman. It was prosecuted by him and others 



6Jf Centennial Historical Address. 



with vigor and success till the passage of the embargo 
act in December, 1807. Marietta suffered greatly in 
consequence of that measure. " No town in the United 
States suffered so much in proportion to its capital," 
(Hildreth). This branch of business was afterwards 
revived, and ships and steamboats have been built. 
About thirty years ago some eight or ten ocean vessels 
were built here; one of which, the "John Farnum," 
built by A. B. & I. R. Waters, was sent to Ireland with 
a cargo of corn in charge of Asa B. Waters. 

In January, 1829, Dobbins and McElfresh started 
an iron foundry, called the "Washington Foundry," a 
little north of the Steam Mill in Harmar. A year later 
it was bought by A. T. Nye. A few years since the 
foundry was moved to the building erected for a woolen 
factory, where it is still carried on by A. T. Nye & Son. 
The foundry of Mr. Owen Franks, on Second street, 
was established about 1840 by Franks & Hendrie. 

Efforts to establish cotton and woolen manufactures 
at Marietta have not been very successful though at 
Beverly there are woolen establishments in a prosperous 
condition. 

While it is difficult to see why these and other 
manufactures should not flourish here, the best success 
thus far has been attained in the departments of iron 
and wood. There have been various foundries and ma- 
chine-shops, and establishments for the manufacture of 
buckets and tubs have given employment to many per- 
sons. The largest establishment in the place at present 
is the Marietta Chair Company, of which John Mills is 
president. 

For Agricultural statistical purposes the State is di- 
vided into three districts : northern, central and southern, 



Statistics— Agriculture and Petroleum. 65 



the latter embracing twenty-two counties. Taking the 
statistics of the last six years reported, 1869-1874, 
Washington county holds the eighth place in the num- 
ber of bushels of wheat raised to the acre — ranging 
from the eleventh place in 1873 to the fifth in 1874. 
The yield in 1873 was 9.13 bushels to the acre, and in 
1874 it was 13.85. Thus in 1874 — the last year whose 
statistics have been received-of the twenty-two counties, 
four had a higher average to the acre, and seventeen 
had a lower; and our county was 14 per cent, above 
the average of the district. 

There is one product in which this county has de- 
cided pre-eminence — petroleum. For the years 1873, 
1874, the Secretary of State reports for Washington 
county an aggregate of 2,209,928 gallons, and for the 
rest of the State 185,280 gallons. Thus this county 
produces about twelve times as much petroleum as all 
the other counties combined. From statements kindly 
furnished by gentlemen engaged in the oil trade the 
whole production may be given as follows: Cow Run, 
510,000 barrels; Macksburgh, 104,000; Newell's Run, 
Pawpaw, and Fifteen Mile, 6,000; total 620,000 barrels. 
At three dollars a barrel, the probable average price, 
we have $1,860,000, as the value of the oil product for 
about sixteen years. A few of the wells at Macks- 
burgh are over the Noble county line, but the result 
will not be much diminished. 

In a brief account of this county published at New 
York in 1834, by John Delafield, Jr., mention is made 
of petroleum — called " spring oil," or " seneca oil," — 
as having been known to the hunters and early inhabi- 
tants of the county since its first settlement. " It can 
be used," he says, ff in lamps as it affords a brilliant 



66 Centennial Historical Address. 



light. It is very useful and therefore much employed 
in curing the diseases of and injuries done to horses. 
It is perhaps the best substance known for the preven- 
tion of friction in machinery." Most of the oil used by 
druggists through the different States is sold by a Ma- 
rietta firm — Bosworth, Wells & Co. This, which is a 
heavy oil, comes principally from the neighborhood of 
Hughes river in West Virginia. 

An Agricultural Society was formed in 1819, April 
28th, styled " The Agricultural and Manufacturing So- 
ciety of Washington and Wood 1 Counties." The first 
meeting for the choice of officers was appointed for 
November 10th, and Ephraim Cutler, Joseph Barker, 
and Alexander Henderson were appointed to issue an 
address to the people of the two counties. The meet- 
ing was held at the court-house, but was adjourned to 
the 17th, at the academy. At this adjourned meeting, 
of which Paul Fearing; was chairman and Dr. S. P. 
Hildreth clerk, the following officers were chosen; Ben- 
jamin I. Gilman, president; Christian Schultz, 1st vice- 
president; Wm. R. Putnam, 2d vice-president; S. P. 
Hildreth, recording secretary; Nahum Ward, corres- 
ponding secretary; David Putnam, treasurer. The 
board of managers consisted of the president and vice- 
president, eoc-officio, with Ebenezer Battelle, George 
Neale, John Griffith, Ephraim Cutler, J. B. Regnier, 
Benjamin Dana, A. W. Putnam, Paul Fearing, A. 
Henderson. 

It is probable that from that time to the present the 
county has not been without an organization for these 
general purposes. In 1826 a county fair was held; the 
committee of arrangements being Nahum Ward, S. P. 
Hildreth, and John Mills, with Joseph Barker, Jr., pres- 

1. Wood County in Virginia. 



Agricultural and Mechanical Association. 67 

sident, and W. B. Barnes, secretary. In June 1834, the 
county commissioners voted the sum of fifty dollars to 
the Agricultural Society " to buy seed wheat from New 
York." 

The present organization was made in 1846, since 
which time the records are complete. The following 
gentlemen have been presidents: for 1846, Joseph Bar- 
ker; 1847, George Dana; 1848, Joseph Barker; 1849, 
William R. Putnam, Jr.; 1850, George W. Barker; 
185 1, William Devol; 1852, Seth Woodford; 1853, 
1854, George W. Barker; 1855-1857, A. B. Battelle; 
1858, 1859, L.J. P. Putnam; i860, George W. Barker; 
1 86 1- 1 867, George Dana, Jr.; 1868, John Newton; 
1869, Augustine Dyar; 1870, John D. Barker; 1871, 
William F. Curtis; 1872, 1873, John Newton; 1874, 
William R. Putnam, (declined); 1875, 1876, Thomas 
W. Moore; 1877, P. B. Buell; 1878, Pemberton 
Palmer. 

The society has occupied the present grounds a 
little more than twenty years. Before that time the 
court-house served as the floral hall, and the streets ad- 
jacent, or some convenient vacant lots, were used for 
the display of stock. In 1852 subscriptions were com- 
menced for the purchase of grounds and the erection of 
buildings. Subsequently a company of gentlemen made 
the purchase, and transferred to the society when a 
sufficient sum had been raised. 

The large mineral resources with which this coun- 
ty abounds have scarcely begun to be developed. It 
may be that the region included in the purchase by the 
Ohio Company will prove to be more valuable on ac- 
count of its mineral wealth than any fertility of soil 
could make it. 



68 Centennial Historical Address. 



The Bank of Marietta was chartered February 
ioth, 1808. This was the first bank incorporated as 
such in the State. (The Miami Exporting Company, 
incorporated in 1803, exercised banking powers.) The 
directors named in the act were Rufus Putnam, pres- 
ident, Benjamin Ives Oilman, William Skinner, Paul 
Fearing, Dudley Woodbridge, Earl Sproat, and David 
Putnam. The charter was for ten years, but in 1816 the 
time was extended to January 1st, 1843. The presi- 
dents in succession after General Putnam were B. I. 
Oilman, D. Woodbridge, Levi Barber, and John Mills. 
The cashiers were David Putnam, David S. Chambers, 
Alexander Henderson, Benjamin P. Putnam, Wm. B. 
Barnes, Arius Nye, and Anselm T. Nye. 

The State Bank of Ohio was chartered in 1845, 
and a branch was established at Marietta. John Mills, 
Noah L. Wilson, and Douglas Putnam, were the succes- 
sive presidents, and N. L. Wilson, J. R. Crawford, and Is- 
rael R. Waters, the cashiers. In 1863 this bank became 
the Marietta National, with Douglas Putnam, president, 
and I. R. Waters, cashier. Afterwards Mr. Waters be- 
came president and F. E. Pearce, cashier. It is now a 
private bank. 

The First National Bank of Marietta was organized 
in 1863, with Beman Gates, president, who still holds 
the office. William F. Curtis was the first cashier, and 
subsequently Daniel P. Bosworth, and Edward R. Dale. 

The First National Bank of Beverly, was started 
in 1863. Its presidents have been George Bowen, Wm. 
Mcintosh, E. S. Mcintosh; the cashiers, Wm. Mcin- 
tosh, S. R. Mcintosh, C. W. Reynolds. This is now a 
private bank. 

The first and only Savings Bank in the county was 






Money and Accounts. 69 

established January, 1872 — The Dime Savings Society — 
with John L. Mills, president. W. H. Johnson, treasurer. 

It is interesting to note the usages of the pioneers 
as to money terms and the mode of keeping accounts. 
In 1785 the Continental Congress had established the 
decimal system, with the dollar as the unit, and in 1786 
they provided for the issue of the gold eagle and half- 
eagle. While the terms used b}< T the Governor and 
Judges in the laws were restricted to our decimal nota- 
tion, the people were slow to give up the pounds, 
shillings, and pence; and the first fifteen or twenty 
years after 1788 show a great variety of customs. An 
account made out by D. Woodbridge, Jr., & Co., in 
1799, is in the English currency, and an account book of 
Joshua Shipman, extending from 1796 to February, 
1804, is also in pounds, shillings, and pence. The very 
last entry shows a change. " Nathan Mcintosh, Dr. to 
23^ days of the boy James, 23.50." The dollar was 
equal to six shillings, unless otherwise specified. 

A curious use of the decimal system appears in 
the inventory of the effects of the estate of General 
Varnum, made January 24th, 1789, by Winthrop Sar- 
gent, Charles Greene, and Isaac Pierce, appraisers. 
The sums are entered in five columns, headed E. D. d. c. 

m. Thus, one item is - - - — 

' 1333 

Another is - 5 5 * \ 

1476 

We should write the two sums $1.33/^ and $14.76. 
A bill of Dr. Thos. Farley against General V's estate 
is "D168 2, ($16.82)." In 1789 a fine of "six dimes 
and six cents," with costs of" one dollar and five dimes," 
was imposed for failure in road work. And in the 
same year the fine and costs of two others were " three 
dollars and thirty-six ninetieths." A bill of lumber 



70 Centennial Historical Address. 

sold to General Putnam by John White amounted to 
" 9 dollars ,'"." The same mode of reckoning is found 
in a paper of General Putnam's, drawn up in 1780, when 
he was in the army. 

The following extract is worthy of quotation at a 
time when the various forms of money, and the values 
it represents, are so much discussed. It is from a law 
enacted in 1792 by Winthrop Sargent, acting governor, 
and John Cleves Symmes and Rufus Putnam, judges, 
regulating the fees of public officers. " And whereas 
a dollar varies in its real value in the several counties 
of the territory, some provision in kind ought to be 
made, therefore: Be it enacted: That for every cent 
allowed by this act one quart of Indian corn may be 
demanded and taken by the person to whom the fee is 
coming, as an equivalent for the cent, always at the 
election of the person receiving the same, whether to 
accept of his fee in Indian corn or in specie, at the sum 
affixed by the foregoing table of fees; one quart of In- 
dian corn being always equal to one cent and so at that 
rate for a greater or a less sum." 

It has been seen that Mr. Joshua Shipman in 1804 
charged one dollar a day for his boy James, (at carpen- 
ter work). In 1808 the county commissioners ordered 
that the judges and clerks of the presidential election 
should receive twenty-five cents a day. 

The citizens of this county have not been slow to 
respond to calls for military service, as is shown by 
their history from the time of the Indian wars of the 
last century, down to the great rebellion of 1 861-1865. 
Some of the original papers of enlistment are still in 
existence, with the signatures of those who volunteered 
in December, 1806, at the call of the Governor of Ohio 
to aid in suppressing the Burr insurrection; of those 



Military Record. 71 



who responded to the call of President Jefferson for 
100,000 men in August, 1807; and of those who volun- 
teered in the war with England 181 2-14. The name of 
Captain Timothy Buell appears on each of these oc- 
casions, and in the war with England we find the names 
of Major Alexander Hill, Captain John Thorniley, 
Captain E. B. Dana, and Captain J. Ford. 

In the late civil war this county furnished over four 
thousand men, as stated by General T. C. H. Smith in 
his address at the dedication of the Soldiers' Monu- 
ment. Besides the many gallant men that went direct- 
ly from the county, there were in the Union army many 
others, descendants of the early settlers of Marietta. 
Among those who held high command were Generals 
John Pope, Irwin McDowell, and D. C. Buell, who 
were severally the grandsons of Elijah Backus, Abner 
Lord, and Timothy Buell. 

Such is a brief outline of the history of Washing- 
ton county. Personal incidents could not be dwelt 
upon, and there was the less occason as so many have 
been preserved in the valuable works of the late Dr. 
S. P. Hildreth. The materials for a full history of the 
county are abundant, and its preparation should not 
longer be delayed. 

While this county cannot claim pre-eminence in 
any of the great departments of human industry, yet 
from the 7th of April, 1788 to the present time there 
has been no lack of intelligent, capable men in the va- 
rious vocations of life. High intelligence has been a 
characteristic from the beginning. None of the vil- 
lages in the best parts of New England could show a 
larger proportion of liberally educated men than Ma- 
rietta, Belpre, and Waterford, in the first twenty years of 
their history. And within the present generation the 



72 Centennial Historical Address. 



public spirit and intelligent liberality of some of the 
citizens of this place have made their names and the 
name of Marietta household words in the best circles of 
the land. 

In early times many came to Marietta to sojourn 
for a while and from here went out to their permanent 
homes. This was their temporary residence; and plea- 
sant recollections of it and its inhabitants seem always 
to have remained with them. So now we often meet 
with those who have made Marietta a place of educa- 
tional sojourn; who have spent here a portion of their 
youth in intellectual training, and have then gone forth 
to do the work assigned them. But, unlike those who 
in the early days made this the gateway to the great 
west, and who have now all passed away, their number 
will increase year by year. Even now you will find 
them scattered from Maine to Georgia, from Texas to 
Oregon. Whatever may be the future of this town 
as a mart of trade or a manufacturing point, there is 
every probability that it will become more and more an 
important educational center. In beauty of situation 
and the intelligence and refinement of its people it can 
compare favorably with the most noted seats of learn- 
ing, while the remarkable generosity of the founders 
and friends of the College cannot fail to stimulate others 
here and elsewhere to provide the means for its con- 
tinued increase in efficiency and usefulness. 

May the people of Washington county be pros- 
pered in all that pertains to their highest well-being. 
May her future, for the next century, and for all coming- 
centuries, be worthy of the noble men who here laid 
the foundations of this State and the great north-west — 
worthy of the illustrious citizen whose name the county 
bears. 



APPENDIX 



Lists of the various Civil Officers have been prepared, and are 
appended to the discourse. These embrace the judges of the 
Territory, judges of the Court of Common Pleas, members of Con- 
gress, senators and representatives in the General Assembly, post- 
masters at Marietta, and the various county officers. 



74 Appendix. 



APPENDIX. 



JUDGES OF THE TERRITORY. 

The Territorial Court was composed of three Judges, appointed at first by 
Congress, and afterwards by the President. John Armstrong and William 
Barton were appointed but declined. The following is the list with the dates 
of appointment: 

Samuel H. Parsons Oct. 16, 1787..N0V. 17, 1789: died. 

James M. Varnum Oct. 16, I787..jan. 10, 1789: died. 

John Cleves Symmes Feb. 19, 178S..1S03: State formed. 

George Turner Sept. 12, 1789..1798: resigned. 

Rufus Putnam Mar. 31, i790..Dec. 22, 1796: resigned. 

Joseph Gilman Dec. 22, 1796. .1803: State formed. 

Return J. Meigs, Jr Feb. 12, 1798..1803, State formed. 

COURT OF COMMON PEEAS. 

Such a court existed prior to the State; it was composed of not less than 
three nor more than five judges. The following gentlemen were judges, though 
their exact terms of service cannot be given. 

Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper, Archibald Crary, Joseph Gilman 
Dudley Woodbridge, Robert Oliver, Daniel Loring,John G. Petit, Isaac 
Pierce, Griffin Greene, Ephraim Cutler, Peregrine Foster. 

The constitution of 1802 provided for a Court of Common Pleas to con- 
sist of one president judge and two or three associate judges, all to be appointed 
by the legislature and to hold office for seven years. There were to be three 
president judges for the State, but the associate judges were appointed in each 
county. 

PRESIDENT JUDGES FOR THE CIRCUIT. 

Calvin Pease 1803..1808 John E. Hanna, 1S40..1847 

William Wilson 1808..1S19 Arius Nye, 1847..1S50 

Ezra Osborne 1819..1S26 Archibald G. Brown..i850..i852 

Thomas Irwin 1826..1840 

ASSOCIATE JUDGES FROM 1803 to 1852. 

Griffin Greene 1S03..1808 Walter Curtis 1S24..1837 

Joseph Buell 1803..1810 Henry P. Wilcox 1824..1825 

Joseph Wood 1803..180S Anaxamander Warner 1824..1830 

Ezekiel Deming 1S0S..1824 John Cotton 1825..1847 

William Hempstead 1808..1810 Joseph Barker 1830..1843 

Paul Fearing 1S10..1817 Oliver R. Loring 1S37..1847 

Thomas Lord 1810..1817 Isaac Humphreys 1S43..1843 

Henry Jolly 1817..1824 Ebenezer Gates 1S43..1844 

John Sharp 1817..1823 Joseph Barker, Jr 1844..1852 

Judah M. Chamberlain 1823..1824 Bial Steadman 1847..1852 

William R. Putnam, Jr 1847..1S52. 



Appendix. 75 



By the constitution of 185 1 the State for judicial purposes is divided into 
districts and sub-districts. A judge is elected in each sub-district for five 
years. This county is united with Gallia, Meigs and Athens, constituting the 
third sub-district of the seventh district. Since 1868 there have been two 
judges in this sub-district. 

JUDGES OF THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS FROM 1852. 

Simeon Nash 1852..1862 David B. Hebard, fan. iS75..0ct. '715 

John Welch 1S62..1S65 John Cartwright, Feb. 1875..OCI:. '75 

Erastus A. Guthrie 1865..1874 J. P. Bradbury, Oct. i875..Feb. '77 

William B. Loomis 1868..1873 Sam'l S. Knowles, Oct. i87s..Feb. 78 

Tobias A. Plants 1873..1875 J.P.Bradbury, Feb. i877-.Feb. '82 

Samuel S. Knowles, Feb. i878..Feb. 1883 

Judge Welch was elected to the Supreme Court, Judges Guthrie and Plants 
resigned, and Judges Hebard and Cartwright were appointed by the Governor. 
Judges Bradbury and Knowles are the present incumbents. 

PRORATE JUDGES. 

A Probate Court was established in the first year of the Territory, the 
Governor appointing the judge. The first state constitution abolished the 
court, but the second restored it. The judge is elected by the people for three 
years. 

Rufus Putnam Oct. i788..Dec. 17S9, (resigned.) 

Joseph Oilman Dec. i789..Dec. 1796, (resigned.) 

Paul Fearing Mar. i797..Mar. 1803. 

Thomas W, Ewart Feb. 1852-Oct. 1852, (resigned.) 

Davis Green Oct. i852..Feb. 1855. 

William Devol Feb. i855-.Feb. 1858. 

Charles R. Rhodes Feb. i858..Feb. 1861. 

Charles F. Buell Feb. iS6i..Feb. 1864. 

Luman W. Chamberlain Feb. i864..Feb. 1S70. 

A. W. McCormick Feb. i87o..Feb. 1876. 

C. T. Frazyer Feb. i876..Feb. 1879. 

COURT OF GENERAL QUARTER SESSIONS OF THE PEACE. 

Such a court was established in 17S8, and was continued in each county 
till 1803. The duties were partly judicial and partly executive. The court 
established townships, laid out new roads, appointed overseers of the poor for 
the townships, granted licenses for houses of entertainment, &c. 

The following Justices were members of the court at different times: 
Joseph Gilman, Isaac Pierce, Robert Oliver, Dudley Woodbridge, Josiah 
Munro, John G. Petit, Griffin Greene, William R. Putnam, Samuel William- 
son, Joseph Barker, Ephraim Cutler, Henry Smith, Phillip Whitten, Alvin 
Bingham, Thomas Stanley, Seth Carhart, Robert Safford, William Harper, 
William Burnham, Joseph Buell. 

MEMRERS OF STATE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS. 

1802. 1850-51. 

Ephraim Cutler, Thomas W. Ewart, 

Benjamin Ives Gilman, William P. Cutler. 

John Mclntire, 1S73-74. 

Rufus Putnam. Harlow Chapin. 

The constitution of 1802 was not submitted to the vote of the people ; 
that of 1874 was rejected by a large majority. 



76 Appendix. 



MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 

The first election of representatives to the territorial legislature was in 
1798. Paul Fearing and Return Jonathan Meigs, Senior, were elected from 
Washington county. Colonel Robert Oliver was appointed by the President 
one of the five members of the Council, or upper house, and subsequently 
became its president. The legislature met for its first session September 
16th, 1799; and for its second, November 3d, 1S00. 

Ephraim Cutler and William R. Putnam were elected representatives to 
the second legislature, which met November 24th, 1801. These gentlemen 
were also re-elected in October, 1S02, to the third territorial legislature; 
which, however, was never convened, as Ohio was admitted into the Union 
February 19th, 1803. Nor did the second legislature hold a second sesssion. 

The first State legislature met March 1st, 1803, the second on the first 
Monday of December, 1803. The senators were elected for two years, the 
representatives for one. This county has been associated with others in the 
election of senators, and at times also in the election of representatives. In 
1S03 and 1804 she elected alone. From 1805 to 1807, inclusive, the district 
embraced Washington, Gallia, Muskingum, and Athens. From 1808 to 
1819, it embraced Washington and Athens ; and from 1820 to 1823, Washing- 
ton and Morgan. Since that time Washington county has constituted the 
district. 

The following list contains the names of those only who belonged in this 
county, as it is now bounded. Under the first constitution the sessions of the 
legislature began on the first Monday of December. 

TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE. 

SENATORS. REPRESENTATIVES. 

Paul Fearing ) o 

Robert Oliver (President) 1799..1803. Return J. Meigs..f 799" 

Ephraim Cutler ) n g 

William R. Putnam. $ " ■*• 

STATE LEGISLATURE. 

SENATORS. REPRESENTATIVES. 

1st Assembly Joseph Buell William Jackson 1803. 

2d " ... U°, se P h ^ ue ! ] William Jackson 1803. 

{ Elijah Backus J ° 

3d " Joseph Buell Seth Carhart 1804. 

, „ j Joseph Buell o 

4 tn •• } Hallam Hempstead. 5 ' 

5th " Hallam Hempstead. Levi Barber 1806. 

6th " John Sharp Joseph Palmer 1S07. 

7th " John Sharp William Woodbridge i8c8. 

8th " William R. Putnam 1809. 

S. P. Hildreth ) _~ 

9th « W.R.Putnam \ lSl °' 

10th " William Woodbridge S. P. Hildreth 1811. 

nth " William Woodbridge Sardine Stone 1812. 

12th " William Woodbridge Sardine Stone 1813. 

13th " William R. Putnam John Sharp 1814. 

14th " John Sharp Henry Jolly 1S15. 

15th " John Sharp Sardine Stone 1816. 

16th " Sardine Stone Nathanael Hamilton 1817. 

17th " Sardine Stone Joseph Barker 1818. 



Appendix. 7 7 



SENATORS. REPRESENTATIVES. 

iSth Assembly Sardine Stone Ephraim Cutler 1819. 

19th " Sardine Stone Timothy Buell 1820. 

20th " Sardine Stone Timothy Buell 1821. 

21st " Sardine Stone Ephraim Cutler 1822. 

22d " Ephraim Cutler William Skinner x §23. 

23d il Ephraim Cutler John Cotton 1824. 

24th " William R. Putnam 1825. 

25th " William R. Putnam 1826. 

26th " William R. Putnam.. Arius Nye 1827. 

27th " William R. Putnam.. Arius Nye 1828. 

28th " Joseph Barker, Jr 1829. 

29th " Joseph Barker, Jr 1830. 

30th " Arius Nye James M. Booth l $3i' 

31st " Arius Nye James M. Booth 1832. 

32d " Silas Cook ^33- 

33d " Joseph Barker, Jr T 834. 

34th " Isaac Humphreys T 835- 

3^th " Isaac Humphreys !83°- 

36th " Walter Curtis 1837. 

3 7th " Walter Curtis 1S38. 

3Sth " Isaac Humphreys... William A. Whittlesey I 839- 

39th " Isaac Humphreys... Arius Nye 1840. 

40th " Truxton Lyon 1841. 

41st •' George M. Woodbridge 1842. 

42d " William Glines I ^3- 

43d " William P. Cutler 1844. 

44th " Rufus E. Harte William P. Cutler 1845. 

45th " Rufus E. Harte William P. Cutler (Speaker). ...1846. 

46th " George W. Barker 1847. 

47th " Seth Woodford 1S48. 

48th " George W. Barker. Seth Woodford 1849. 

49th " George W. Barker. Ebenezer Battelle, Jr ^o. 

Under the constitution of 1851 both senators and representatives are 
elected for two years. The regular sessions commence on the first Monday 
of January. 

SENATORS. REPRESENTATIVES. 

50th Assembly Levi Bartlett 1852. 

51st " Harley Lafiin Thomas Ross l &54- 

_ j „ Sam'l Hutchinson ) ~ ,- 

5 James Lawton J 3 

53d " Davis Green O.' Lewfs^Clarke } l ^ S - 

54th " John Haddow 1S60. 

1515th '' O. Lewis Clarke 1862. 

56th " William F.Curtis Mark Green 1864. 

A. L. Curtis | 

57th " Samuel S. Knowles A. L. Haskin > 1866. 

James B.Green 1 J 

» , „ Sam'l M. Richardson") , 

5 8th " Perez B. Buell } l868 ' 

159th " Rodney M. Stimson John A. Brown 1870. 

60th " Rodney M. Stimson William G. Way 1872. 

61st " Perez B. Buell John Varley !874> 

, . Henry Bohl ) c,-^ 

62d r -,, J . c -<.u >■ iovo. 

Gilbert Smith j 

- , tit- Henry Bohl 1 „ Q 

63d John Irvine GUh / n Smith } 1878. 

1. Mr. Green was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Haskin. 



78 Appendix. 



MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. 

The Territory was represented in Congress by a delegate for four years 
from 1799 to 1803. Wm. H. Harrison was the first delegate. Having been ap- 
pointed Governor of the Territory of Indiana, he was succeeded by Wm. McMil- 
lan. From 1S01 to 1803, Paul Fearing, of this county, was the delegate. 
From 1803 to 1813 Ohio had but one representative in Congress. From 1813 
to 1823 she had six ; from 1823 to 1833, fourteen ; 1833 to 1843, nineteen ; 
1S43 to 1863, twenty-one ; 1863 to 1873, nineteen ; since 1873, twenty. 

Washington county from 1803 has been in the following Congressional 
districts : first, third, seventh, sixth, thirteenth, sixteenth, fifteenth. 

Territory. William Henry Harrison, Hamilton Co 1799. .1S00. 

" William McMillan, Hamilton Co 1800..1801. 

" Paul Fearing, Washington Co 1801..1803. 

Whole State, Jeremiah Morrow, Warren Co 1803..1813. 

3d District, William Creighton, Jr., Ross Co 1S13..1817. 

3d " Levi Barber, Washington Co 1817..1819. 

3d •' Henry Brush, Ross Co 1819..1821. 

3d " Levi Barber, Washington Co 1S21..1823. 

6th « ( (4yrs)S Samuel F - Vinton ' Gallia Co 1823..1837. 

6th " Calvary Morris, Athens Co 1S37..1843. 

13th " Perley B. Johnson, Morgan Co 1843..1845. 

13th " Isaac Parrish, Morgan Co 1845..1847. 

13th " Thomas Ritchey, Perry Co 1847..1849. 

13th " William A. Whittlesey, Washington C0....1849..1851. 

13th " James M. Gaylord, Morgan Co 1S51..1S53. 

16th " Edward Ball, Muskingum Co 1853..1857. 

16th " Cydnor B. Tompkins, Morgan Co i8s7«i86i. 

16th " William P. Cutler, Washington Co 1S61..1863. 

15th " James R. Morris, Monroe Co 1863..1865. 

15th " Tobias A. Plants, Meigs Co 1865..1869. 

15th " Eliakim H. Moore, Athens Co 1869..1871. 

15th " William P. Sprague, Morgan Co 1S71..1S75. 

15th " Nelson H. Van Vorhes, Athens Co 1875..1879. 

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. 

Provision was made for three such officers by a law adopted from the 
Pennsylvania code by the Governor and Judges in 1795, and confirmed by 
the Territorial legislature in 1799. They were to be appointed by the Court 
of Quarter Sessions. The State law of 1804 provided for their election by 
the people, one each year, the term of office being three years. 

The following were appointed under the law of the Territory : Wm. R. 
Putnam, Paul Fearing, Oliver Rice, Gilbert Devol, Jonathan Haskell, Simeon 
Deming, Isaac Pierce. Of these, Isaac Pierce served till 1804, W. R. 
Putnam till 1805, and Simeon Deming till 1806. The list of those elected 
in successive years is as follows : 

1804 Nathanael Hamilton 1S11 Daniel Goodno 

1805 John Sharp 1812 Henry Jolly 

1S06 Paul Fearing 1S13 Nathanael Hamilton 

1807 Nathanael Hamilton 1814 Daniel Goodno 

1808 Joseph Barker 1815 William Skinner 

1809 Paul Fearing (resigned) 1816 Titan Kemble 

1S09 John Sharp (for 2 yrs) 1817 John B. Regnier 

1810 Nathanael Hamilton 1818 Daniel Goodno 



Appendix. 79 



1819 Titan Kemble (resigned) 1847 Lewis H. Greene 

1820 John B. Regnier (died) 1848 Douglas Putnam 

1821 Samuel Beach (2 years) 1849 John Breckenridge 

1821 Amzi Stanley (1 year) 1850 George Stanley 

1821 Daniel Goodno 1851 Douglas Putnam 

1822 Joseph Barker 1852 Walter Curtis 

1S23 William R. Putnam 1853 Benjamin Rightmire 

1824 Daniel H. Buell (resigned)i854 William Mason 

1825 Joseph Barker 1855 Walter Curtis 

1825 Thomas White (1 year) 1856 Charles Dana 

1826 William Pitt Putnam 1857 William R. Putnam 

1826 Silas Cook (1 year) 1S58 Joseph Penrose 

1827 Anselm T. Nye 18=59 Zachariah Cochrane 

1828 Seth Baker (1 year) i860 James McWilliams 

1829 Joel Tuttle 1861 J.J. Hollister 

1S29 Jabish F.Palmer (2years)iS62 Wm. Thomas 

1830 Anselm T. Nye 1863 Anthony Sheets (resigned) 

1831 Jabish F.Palmer 1S64 J. J. Hollister 

1832 Ebenezer Battelle ^^o George Benedict 

1833 William Pitt Putnam 1865 James Little (1 year) 

1834 John D. Chamberlain 1866 James Little 

1S35 Robert K. Ewart 1867 Seymour Clough 

1836 Daniel H. Buell 1868 George Benedict 

1837 John D. Chamberlain 1S69 Thomas Caywood 

1838 William Dana i87o Mark Green (resigned) 

1839 Daniel H. Buell i87i Joseph Penrose 

1840 John D. Chamberlain 1S71 Cyrenius Buchanan (2 years) 

1841 James Dutton i872 John Hall 

1842 Douglas Putnam x §73 Pemberton Palmer 

1843 Hiram Gard x §74 John Pool 

1844 William West 1875 John Potter 

1840 Douglas Putnam i876 Moses A. Maltster 

1846 Boylston Shaw 1877 John Hoppel 

COUNTY AUDITOR. 

The office was created in 1820. The General Assembly appointed the 
first Auditor. In 1821 the Auditor was required to be elected by the people 
each year. In 1824 the law made the term two years. 

The successive Auditors have been : 

Royal Prentiss 1S20..1825 Horatio Booth 1854..1856 

William A. Whittlesey 1825..1838 Frederick A. Wheeler 1856..1864 

James M. Booth 1838..1840 Zadok G. Bundy..... 1864..1868 

Joseph P. Wightman 1840..1842 John V.Ramsey 1S68..1870 

James M. Booth 1842..1S46 John T.Matthews.. iS7o..iS76 

Sala Bosworth 1S46..1854 Benjamin J. McKinney 1876..1873 

COUNTY RECORDERS. 

Under the Territory the Recorder — styled Register till 1795 — was ap- 
pointed by the Governor. By the law of 1803 the associate judges appointed, 
for seven years. By the law of 1829 the people elect, for three years. 

Enoch Parsons 1788 I 79° 

Dudley Woodbridge April, ^go.June, igo7 

Giles Hempstead June, i8o7..June, 1814 

George Dunlevy June, i8i4..June, 1817 



80 Appendix. 



Daniel H. Buell June, iSi7..0ct., 1834 

James M. Booth Oct., 1834. .Nov. 1837 

Daniel P. Bosworth Nov., i837-.Oct., 1S43 

Stephen Newton Oct., 1843..N0V. 1855 

William B. Mason Nov., iS55..Jan. 1S62 

Manly Warren J«in-, 1862-Mav, 1S64 

Win. Warren (appointed) May, 1864-Jan. 1S65 

Geo. J. Bartmess Jan., iS6 % t;..Aug. 1866 

A. T. Ward (appointed) Au g-> i866..Jan. i867 

James Nixon J an -, iS67» 

COUNTY TREASURERS. 

The Governor appointed till the formation of the State. By the law of 1803, 
the associate judges appointed. By the law of 1804, the commissioners ap- 
pointed annually. Since 1827 the people have elected, for two years. By the 
constitution of 185 1 the Treasurer is eligible only four years in six. 

Jonathan Stone 1792. .1801 Stephen Newton 1856. .1858 

Jabez True 1801..1817 Ebenezer B. Leget i8q8..i86o 

Joseph Holden 1817..1828 William B.Thomas 1860..1862 

Weston Thomas 1828..1830 Rufus E. Harte 1862..1866 

Royal Prentiss 1830..1832 William B. Mason 1866..1868 

Michael Deterly 1832..1836 Lewis Anderson 1868.-1870 

Ebenezer Gates 1836..1838 Ernest Lindner 1870..1874 

Robert Crawford 1838..1SSO William S. Waugh 1874..1878 

Abner L. Guitteau 1850..1856 William R. Goddard 1S78..1880 

COUNTY COLLECTORS. 

For some years prior to 1S04 there were township collectors, and they per- 
formed some service in 1805. The office of Countv Collector was abolished 
in 1827. * 

Nathanael Gushing 1804. .1806 Timothy Buell 1808..1S20 

William Burnham 1S06..1807 Jesse Loring 1820.. 1822 

Obadiah Lincoln 1807..180S Timothy Buell 1822..1823 

Jesse Loring 1823.. 1827. 

SHERIFFS. 

Under the Territory the Governor appointed. Under the State the peo- 
ple elect, for two years. Sheriffs are eligible only four years in six. 

Ebenezer Sproat Sept. 2, 17SS to 1802 

William Skinner 1802 to 1803 

John Clark 1803 to 1810 

William Skinner 1810 to 1812 

Timothy Buell 1S12 to 1S14 

Alexander Hill 18 14 to 18 16 

Timothy Buell 1816 to Oct. 1S20 

Silas Cook Oct. 1820 to " 1824 

Jesse Loring " 1824 to " 1S2S 

Robert R. Green " 182S to " 1832 

Jesse Loring " 1832 to " 1834 

Benjamin M. Brown " 183410 " 1838 

John Test " 183S to " 1842 

George W. Barker " 184210 " 1846 

Junia Jennings " 184610 ,, tS.S 

Jesse Hildebrand " 1850 to Jan. 1853 

Marcellus J. Morse Jan. 1853 to ,, 1857 



Appendix. 81 



Mark Green " 1857 to " 1861 

Augustus Winsor " 1S61 to " 1 &(>S 

Jackson A. Hicks " 1865 to " 1869 

Samuel L. Grosvenor " 1S69 to " X S73 

George Davenport l< 1873 to " l &17 

William T. Stedman " 1S77 to " l8 79 

CORONERS. 

Provision was made in 178S for a Coroner in each county, to be appointed 
by the Governor. The first State constitution also provided for one to be 
elected every two years by the people, and a law of 1854 continued the provi- 
sion. The list appended is believed to be correct from 1S12 to the present 
time; there is some uncertainty as to the previous periods. 

Charles Green (Territory). Chauncey T. Jiidd ^S^ 

Joel Bowen 1S03 Finley Wilson 1852 

Joseph Holden 1806 James H.Jones l8 53 

Alexander Hill 1S12 Chauncev T. Judd 1S55 

Silas Cook 1814 Benjamin F. Stone l8 57 

Sampson Cole 1816 Louis Soyez l %59 

Silas Cook 1S18 Allen M. Creigbaum i860 

John Merrill 1S20 Lemuel Grimes 1864 

Griffin Greene 1824 Simeon D. Hart 1S66 

Francis Devol x 834 Herman Michaelis 1868 

Warden Willis 1S36 Philip Emrich 1870 

Lawrence Chamberlain J^S Marcellus J. Morse 1872 

John T. Clogston 1844 T. C. Kiger ig74 

Lawrence Chamberlain 1S46 Conrad Krigbaum 1876 

PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS. 

This officer was appointed by the courts under the territory. The State 
law of 1S03 gave the appointment to the Supreme Court, and that of 1805 to 
the Court of Common Pleas. From 1833 the people have elected. The 
term of office is two years. 

Paul Fearing Sept. 9, 1788 to 1794 

Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr J 794 to x 79 8 

Matthew Backus 1798 to 1808 

William Woodbridge 1808 to Feb. 6, 1815 

Caleb Emerson Feb. 6. 1815 to April 10, 1S21 

John P. Mayberry April 10, 1821 to Oct. 30, 1829 

Arius Nye Oct. 30, 1S29 to Aug. 17, 1840 

David Barber Oct. 26, 1840 to April 3, 1845 

Arius Nye April 3, 1S45 to March 8, 1847 

William "D. Emerson March 8, 1S47 to March 13, 1S48 

William S. Nye March 13, 1848 to March, 1850 

Davis Green March, 1S50 to April 5, 1852 

Rufus E. Harte April 5, 1S52 to Oct. 4, 1852 

Samuel B. Robinson Oct. 4, 1552 to Jan. 1855 

Charles R. Rhodes Jan. 1S55 to Jan. 1857 

Samuel B. Robinson Jan. 1857 to Jan. 1859 

Charles R. Barclay Jan. 1859 to Jan. 1S61 

Frank Buell Jan. 1861 to April, 1861 

Melvin Clarke April 1861 to Oct. 11, 1861 

William S. Nye Oct. 11, 1S61 to Jan. 1862 

David Alban./. Jan. 1862 to Jan. 186S 

Walter Brabham Jan. 1S68 to Jan. 1870 

Reuben L. Nye Jan. 1870 to Jan. 1872 



82 Appendix. 



Walter Bratham Jan. 1872 to Jan. 1874 

Samuel B. Robinson Jan. 1874 to Jan. 1876 

Frank F. Oldham Jan. 1S76 to Jan. 1880 

CLERKS OF THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS. 

Under the Territory the title for Clerk of the Court of Common 
Pleas was Prothonotary. This officer and the clerk of the Court of Quarter 
Sessions were appointed by the Governor. Under the State Constitution of 
1802 the Court appointed its own clerk for seven years. Under that of 1851 
the people elect, for three years. 

Return Jonathan Meigs Sept. 9, 1798 to June 9, 1795 

Benjamin Ives Gilman June 9, 1795 to July, I 8°3 

Edward W. Tupper July, 1803 to Oct. 31, 1S0S 

Giles Hempstead Oct. 31, 1808 to Jan. 1 1809 

Levi Barber Jan. 1, 1809 to March 1, 1817 

George Dunlevy March 1, 1817 to Oct. 31, 1836 

Thomas W. Ewart Oct. 31, 1836 to Oct. 21, 1851 

William C. Taylor Oct. 21, 18151 to Feb. 18152 

George S. Gilliland Feb. 1852 to July, 1852 

William C. Tavlor July, 1852 to Feb. 1854 

O. Lewis Clarke .Feb. 1854 to Feb. 1857 

Jasper S. Sprague Feb. 18157 to Feb. 1863 

Willis H.Johnson Feb. 1S63 to Feb. 1866 

Jewett Palmer .Feb. 1866 to Feb. 1872 

Daniel B. Torpy Feb. 1872 to Feb. 1878 

Christian H. Etz Feb. 187S to Feb. 1881 

COUNTY SURVEYORS. 

From 1803 to 1831 the surveyor was appointed by the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas and Commissioned by the Governor Since 1S31 the eleetion 
has been by the people, for three years. 

Levi Barber Nov. 1805 to July, 1816 

William R. Putnam July, 1816 to Oct. 1826 

William R. Browning Feb. 1S27 to May, 1832 

Benj. F. Stone May, 1832 to Nov. 1S41 

Levi Bartlett Nov. 1S41 to Oct. 1851 

L. W. Chamberlain Oct. 1851 to Dec. 1S61 

R. W. St. John Dec. 1861 to Dec. 1864 

Charles E. Gard 1 (appointed) Jan. 1865 to Dec. 1865 

John A. Plumer Feb. 1866 to Jan. 1S75 

J. P. Hulbert Jan. 1875 to Jan. 1881 

INFIRMARY DIRECTORS. 

These officers were appointed by the Commissioners from 1836 until 1842, 
when they were required to be elected by the people, one each year, to serve 
three years. 

Sampson Cole 1836..1842 Brooks Blizzard 1S45..1851 

Eben Gates 1S36..1842 John Collins 1847.-18159 

Wyllys Hall 1836..1842 James M. Booth 1849..1850 

James Dunn 1842..1849 James Dunn 1850..1801 

Thos. F. Stanley 1S42..1844 James Dutton 1850..1853 

Wm. R. Putnam, Jr 1842..1845 James S. Cady 1S53..1S56 

Samuel Shipman 1844..1847 Robert T. Miller. 1854..1S60 

1. Samuel N. Hobson was elected Oct. 1864, but resigned. 



Appendix. 83 



Levi L. Fay 1856..1S62 Samuel E. Fav 1868..1871 

Robert B. Cheatham.... 1 860.. 1S63 H. W. Corner 1S70..1873 

Junia Jennings 1861..1870 Charles Athej 1871..1874 

John Dowling 1862..1865 Geo. W. Richards 1873..1876 

William West 1863..1S66 William Caywood, 3CI...1874..18S0 

James Dunn 1S615..186S John Dowling 1875..1878 

F. A. Wheeler 1866..1875 Charles A. Cook 1S76..1S79 

TRUSTEES OF THE CHIEDENS' HOME. 

By the Act of March 20, 1866, five trustees were to be appointed by 
the County Commissioners, to serve one year each. By the Act of April 
10, 1867, the number of trustees was reduced to three, and the term of 
service extended to three years. 

Douglas Putnam June, 1866 to March, 1868 

William R. Putnam June, 1866 to March, 1877 

Frederick A. Wheeler June, 1866 Incumbent 

William S. Ward June, 1S66 to May, 1871 

Augustin Dyar June, 1S66 to March, 1S68 

Wylie H. Oldham June, 1871 to June, 1875 

W. Dudley Devol Sept. 1875 Incumbent 

George Benedict March, 1877 Incumbent 

POSTMASTERS OF MARIETTA. 

Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr May, 1794 to Oct. 1795 

Josiah Munro Oct. 1795 to 1800 

David Putnam 1800 to 1802 

Griffin Greene 1802 to 1804 

Philip Greene 1804 to 1806 

Griffin Greene, Jr 1806 to 1815 

Samuel Hoit 1816 to 1818 

Henry P. Wilcox 1818 to 1825 

David Morris Jan. 1825 to Aug. 1825 

Daniel H. Buell 1825 to 1S29 

A. V. D. Joline 1829 to 1841 

A. L. Guitteau 1841 to ^S° 

F. A. Wheeler 1850 to 1853 

Nathanael Bishop 1S53 to 1S57 

A. W. McCormick 1857 to 1S61 

Sala Bosworth 1861 to 1870 

W. B. Mason 1870 



i 



